Shinobi Diaries: The Golden Sage Chronicles
by crimson sun06
Summary: The end of the 4th war heralded the dawn of a new age. An age of peace and cooperation between the nations. But underneath the facade of peace lies a new threat. The turmoil and chaos of change allows it to pass unnoticed...or does it?
1. Prologue

**Well guys welcome to my official second story. I have had this idea for a long time. But like all good ideas, this couldn't have been rushed. This story takes place post war and most probably post series. Might be slightly AUish but I will try and remain as faithful to the canon as possible. Anyway don't forget to drop a line.**

The evening sun's gentle rays poured over the streets of Konoha bathing them in an orange hue. The village was in a festive mood. It was about time too. They had precious little to be celebrate for the past few years.

The build up to the war, commencing with the invasion of Konoha by Orochimaru in alliance with Suna where they lost their beloved leader, followed closely by the death of Sandaime's son Asuma Sarutobi in the line of duty by the hands of a criminal organization 3 years later. Things only got worse when the village was attacked by the leader of the same organization.

The casualties would have been devastating if not for the change of heart of the enemy.

Then came the war.

It was unlike any other that came before. For the first time the 5 great villages were united in a war against a common foe. A foe more dangerous than any they could have faced before. Legions of undead warriors who couldn't be killed.

What made matters worse was the fact that these warriors were their own kin, fallen in previous battles.

There had been losses, yes, terrible ones.

But despite everything they had prevailed.

And finally six months after the war, Konoha was preparing for the coronation of their new Hokage, having lost the Godaime in the war.

So, yes they had something to celebrate after months of mourning.

* * *

The crowd was bustling in excitement and anticipation as they awaited their new leader. This event was unprecedented. This was the first time ever that not only leaders of the five great villages were gathered together for an event, but also the Daimyos and Samurai lords.

Two figures made their way to the coronation dais escorted by an honour guard.

"So we are finally here." The older of the two addressed the younger one.

"Yes, we are." His companion agreed. "But why am I not happy then?"

"Leadership isn't a privilege, its a responsibility. Somewhere you do understand that. The previous Hokages did too. Now its your turn." The man reassured his ward.

"Just feels like I have been riding the coat tails of the greatness of others... His greatness."

"That's enough." He admonished. "Have faith in yourself. He did too."

During their conversation they arrived at the dais.

Kakashi Hatake, ex-commander of Allied Shinobi Forces 3rd Division in the 4th Shinobi war, hero of the 3rd, and High Jounin of Konoha approached the dais. Gazing at the sea of humanity in front of him, he couldn't help but feel nostalgic. It had been a long journey. As he made eye contact with the assembled Kages and Daimyos, he thought about everything they had been through.

Gaara the Kazekage looking his usual stoic self. Darui the acting Raikage held a bored look on his. Mei Terumi mischievous and playful. Kurotsuchi was representing Hidden stone.

Leaders of their villages and comrades in the last war. Raising his face he gazed at Mount Hokage, as the slanting rays of the sun hitting them giving it an orange glow. For a second he was sure he saw the blonde visage of his sensei watching over them.

"Ladies and gentleman. Let me present to you The Rokudaime Hokage. Haruno Sakura."

* * *

A tall cloaked and hooded figure looked down at the village from the top of Mount Hokage. A smile playing on his lips.

"You are late." He said without turning around.

"Tch. You are lucky I came at all. Its a pretty big event I am missing down there to be here." A man walked out of the shadows, dressed in the standard Konoha Jounin uniform to stand beside him.

"True. This event is unprecedented. Look at it this way, you have the best seats in the house." The jounin could hear the smirk in his voice.

"Can't argue there." He drawled.

"How have you been?" The man now pulled down his hood to reveal spiky blonde hair and cerulean blue eyes. His early joking tone gone as he turned to face his friend.

"I have been better." The jounin replied. "It could have been you down there you know."

"I know." The blonde sighed.

"You aren't coming back are you?"

"I can't. You know the reasons."

"Doesn't mean I think you're right." The jounin sighed and then added in a resigned tone. "But since when have you listened to anyone."

"Does that mean you aren't going to try and convince me?"

"Tch... That will be troublesome." He hesitated. "You could let her... them know you are alive, you know."

"That would be defeating the whole purpose don't you think?" His companion said in a melancholic tone.

"Is this your way of punishing her?" The jounin retorted. "For not seeing you as important as you saw her."

He expected an outburst after this statement, but was surprised to see a serene if melancholic look in his eyes, a wry smile playing on his lips.

"You know in an ideal world, we would have won the war without losing any friends, baa-chan would still be the Hokage, before stepping down for me, Sasuke would be back in Konoha, Sakura would have professed her love for me and you would be cloud watching." He took a deep breath collecting his thoughts. "But this isn't an ideal world and you have to make sacrifices to have happy endings."

The jounin couldn't help but smile at his friend. "Since when did you get so wise?"

The man chuckled. "Side-effects of having a friend with an IQ over 200."

"So now what? You are going to disappear, never to be seen again?" He couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.

"There is a storm coming. I don't know when its coming and I don't know how powerful it is going to be. But I know it is on its way and all of us will have to be ready when it hits." The man's eyes looked into the horizon, his eyes holding a faraway look. That's when he saw not the man, not the friend, but the sage he was, the prophet he is and the legend he had become. "Our story has yet to run its course my friend." He turned to him and placed an arm on his shoulder. "Take care my friend we will see each other again." With that he turned on his feet and disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

"Farewell... Naruto."

* * *

The coronation ceremony was over. It had taken 3 hours for the ceremony to finish, which was followed by a private audience with the dignitaries and the well-wishers. The follow-up tea ceremony didn't make things any easier.

Finally getting a break from all that Sakura Haruno the Rokudaime Hokage of Konoha got a moment to herself. Or not. Her escort of 2 ANBU guards was still shadowing her barely 3 paces behind her.

This would need some getting used to.

"You're dismissed." She ordered in a crisp tone. The ANBU vanished in a swirl of leaves. She wasn't fooled. They were still there keeping an eye on her, just hidden better. She could tell exactly where they were, a testament to her skills as a kunoichi worthy of being a kage. She sighed audibly, it was as good as she was going to get.

She made her way to the Hero's stone. Passing Training Ground 7 on the way. Seeing the training posts a wave of nostalgia hit her. The bell-test, Naruto tied to the post, Kakashi threatening to kill Sasuke unless she killed Naruto... good times.

There was a new stone adjacent to the old Hero's Stone. This one commemorating the memories of the ones who lost their lives in the field during The 4th war. Next to it was a statue of the greatest hero of the war.

Naruto Uzumaki.

It was a beautiful thing. Standing on a pedestal 12 feet tall. The statue was made of marble of the best quality imported from Kiri. The artist worked on it for months. It was beautiful, graceful and solemn. Something Naruto was..._ not._

Her knuckle headed loud best friend was anything but graceful and solemn. But then those weren't his best qualities. Loyalty, determination and an incredible drive to keep his word no matter what, these qualities defined Naruto. She had lost count of the number of times he had pulled off a victory right out of the jaws of defeat.

But he was also loud, annoying and seriously obnoxious. God she missed him.

Still he would have liked the statue. If only to tell everyone...I told you so. He had been promoted posthumously to the rank of Jounin. But she doubted he would have cared about that.

All he cared about was becoming the Hokage.

Funny. How cursed Team 7 was. No one got what they wanted. Naruto didn't get to be Hokage, Sasuke didn't get his revenge and she... Her dream of having Team 7 together again remained just that... a dream.

"Thought I might find you here." Came the voice of her teacher.

"Well this was supposed to be the best day of his life. Just didn't feel right without him you know." She said acknowledging him.

The tall visage of Kakashi Hatake stood next to her.

"I know what you mean." He said.

"How do you live with this?" She couldn't help asking. Kakashi gazed at his student.

"By cherishing their memories. By fighting for what they stood for. By not giving up. He was a true shinobi. I am proud of what he achieved, just like I am proud of you."

"Me? My achievements pale in comparison to his." Sakura choked back the tears that were threatening to spill. "He was the greatest of us. It should have been him, leading us all."

"The thing about life Sakura, is that the best of us are the ones to go first." Kakashi put his arm around her shoulders, as she tried to fight the tears that were generously flowing down her cheeks. "Its not fair, but that's how it is."

Sakura held on to her sensei, crying on his shoulders. After a few minutes her sobs subsided. Wiping her face, she stepped away from him in slight embarrassment. Seeing his wet jacket she couldn't help but wince.

"Sorry about that."

"Its okay." Kakashi said regaining his usual casual tone.

An ANBU appeared before them crouching on one knee.

"They are ready Rokudaime sama." He said in a curt tone.

"I will be there." Sakura acknowledged.

The ANBU headquarters is one of the best kept secrets of any Hidden village. Konoha was no exception. Following a complex route of underground tunnels, they finally made it to a large circular room. It was the room where new recruits were trained, it sometimes doubles as a ceremonial room too. Which was how it was serving its purpose now.

The entire ANBU core, a cadre of 500 operatives was on its knees. Kakashi Hatake approached Sakura and got down on one knee.

"I would like to be relieved of my duties Hokage sama." He intoned in a solemn tone.

"You are relieved." Sakura said in an equally solemn tone.

Turning to a figure to her right "Do you swear to uphold the principles of the Will of Fire and protect Konoha from all threats visible and invisible with your life and honor?"

"I do." Came the curt reply.

"Then I assign you Nara Shikamaru, code name Hawk to take your place as the Commander of** Ansatsu Senjutsu Tokushu Butai**"

* * *

The figure made his way to a seemingly abandoned building. He was hooded and his cloak was billowing in the wind. He rapped a pattern on the door. A slit opened. Followed by a voice.

"Prove your identity."

The figure, flicked open a kunai and nicked a finger, placing the tribute of blood on the door knob. It glowed blue for a second, before a click indicated that it was now open.

Walking along the dark corridors was nothing new for him. This was where he belonged after all.

The corridor led to a relatively lighter room, though not by much, which suited him just fine. These people and their court and dagger methods.

The room held an enormous round table with cloaked figures not different than him sat with their arms on the table.

The leader stood once the new arrival made his presence known.

"Brothers and sisters." A stern voice greeted the gathering. "Today we are welcoming a new member into our ranks. Please welcome, Uchiha Sasuke."

**There you go folks. The first chapter done. Tell me what you think. And those of you who are unfamiliar with my work, check out my other story Project Konoha.**


	2. Creeping Shadows

**A/N:- Well here we go again. This chapter took some time in coming. Been busy, as those who have been following Project Konoha would know. I received some concerns from one of the two reviews I received for the first chapter. The problem of Sakura being the Hokage, and I will try to address those concerns to the best of my ability. Well, Why not Sakura? If Gaara can be the Kazekage at the age of 15 despite being a hated jinchuriki, then why not Sakura who is the respected apprentice of Tsunade the Sannin who also happens to be the 5th hokage. Also she has been said to have more potential than the Sannin, by characters of Kakashi's and Chiyo's caliber. In my story you can say that she has pretty much achieved this potential. Another case in point would be The 3rd hokage. Considering he led the leaf for approximately 50 years and he expired in his sixties, we can safely assume he was in his teens when he was handed the mantle. So the age thing really doesn't hold water.**

**Kakashi has retired from active duty, so him becoming a hokage was out of question. Moreover I have plans for his character. **

**Now a little background on this story. This is post-series Naruto, so yes he is undoubtedly powerful. Potentially the most powerful character in the series. But he is also smarter and wiser, so don't expect him to start ripping new ones just because he can. My style of writing focuses more on character and plot development. That doesn't mean there won't be any battles. Trust me when I say they will be pretty epic. I will remain faithful to canon events, though I will take liberties. My characters will be edgier and darker than the series characters.**

**Well that's one long ass author's note. Anyway without further ado. **

**Chapter 1:- Creeping Shadows**

Location: 20 miles off Land of Iron.

To say Kanou was having a bad day would have been an understatement. First he got up late, burnt his breakfast, and was ambushed by his superior who chewed him out for half an hour for being late… the asshole. As a low level ashigaru, Kanou hadn't seen combat in the last war. Instead he was shoved aside to this hell-hole, as a caretaker of the refugees fleeing the war.

And months after the war ended the situation had only gotten worse. The influx of refugees while reduced still persisted. But the main problem was the living conditions of the refugees already living there.

They were still housing problems. The units they had provided would have been congested for a single family. But now they had to adjust 2, 3 sometimes even 4 in one unit.

Not to mention the war-orphans. Without anyone to look after them they were running rampant. Frankly speaking the tykes were proving to be more trouble than they were worth.

Not to mention the fact that taking care of them was draining the resources of the Land of Iron. Thankfully with the nomination of the new Hokage, the elemental nations can finally begin to do their bit.

After months of negotiation, the nations had come up with a treaty which focused more on the trade and cultural aspects than the military aspects.

Not sure how that was going to work, yet. The details of the treaty escaped him. But then he didn't care much, as long as it made his job easier.

Right now he was in the middle of processing the paperwork of some of the refugees.

It was dull and dreary work.

He was interrupted in his work when one of the volunteers entered his office space.

"We have another sir." The man said.

"Hmmm. Send him in." He acknowledged.

The man or rather boy who followed in was rather... remarkable.

He was tall, had rather, unruly, overgrown blonde hair, with cerulean blue eyes. His clothes looked travel-worn and dusty. His gait was confident, but subdued with just a hint of smile gracing his lips.

Giving his paperwork a glance, he commenced.

"So, Tenzo, you have stated you're from the land of fire. What brings you here… so long after the war?"

The young man drew a breath before beginning.

"I used to be an apprentice to a blacksmith. The war unfortunately forced us to move away. Somewhere, down the line I got separated from my master. For a while I just foraged while moving. Then I came to know of this place."

"Why didn't you just go back?"

"I would have, but you see my sister-in-law is sick and she really can't travel all the way back…." He trailed off.

"A little too young to be married aren't you?" Kanou mused.

Hearing this, the boy rubbed the back of his head sheepishly while grinning. "Probably. But as my tou-san used to say, son when you see her you will know and when you do, don't hesitate to take that step. " He finished with a wild flurry of his arms.

He is an idiot, Kanou decided after watching his antics, albeit an interesting one.

"So how many of you are there?" He said regaining his professional tone.

"Just me, my wife and my sister-in-law?" the boy replied.

Kanou made a show of going through some documents.

"Tell me you have something for me." The boy pleaded.

"Look kid, we have a lot of people here and accommodating you might be a little difficult." Kanou said apologetically. "…unless."

"Yes?"

"There is a construction project commencing not far from here. We can use more workers, and you look young and strong." Kanou offered the boy.

"Wages?"Tenzo said looking interested.

"Minimum, but it's better than nothing right?"

"Fine I will take it."

"Great I will draw up the paperwork, wait outside and someone will escort you to the settlement." Kanou went back to his paperwork as he waved the boy off.

Once outside the yellow headed boy sighed in relief. He had his doubts initially but was glad that everything worked out in the end. He could stay here and finally figure out what the fuss is all about.

He had just exited the 'office' of the officer-in-charge. The office being a tent held up by a couple of stilts. He sort of felt sorry for that man. This work couldn't have been easy.

A part of Naruto still longed for his home and friends, but that ship had sailed the moment he made his decision and if nothing else he was a man of his word.

"Hey Tenzo over here." A voice summoned him pulling him out of his thoughts. Naruto sighed and made his way to his wife and her sister.

A part of him wondered how he got into this situation. Yeah him and his big mouth.

**Flashback**

Naruto was lost in his thoughts. It had been a few days since he left Konoha having said his farewell to Shikamaru. A part of him still questioned his choices. He still doubted himself.

He had, after all always been a man of action. It had served him well too. But then again most of his life he had followed others even while walking his own path.

That wasn't the case anymore. He was on his own.

The last 6 months had been….. _enlightening, f_or the lack of a better word.

_You have a hard path young Naruto and your journey isn't over just yet… _Those cryptic words still rang in his head.

Naruto Uzumaki. Hero of the 4th Shinobi war. Konoha's one man army, The Golden Sage were some of the monikers he had earned during the war.

Greatness was his for the taking. He would eventually have been Hokage and led his people into a new era of peace.

But then…. Everything changed.

He was dead to the world. It was needed. For the greater good Naruto Uzumaki had to die.

He was now standing in front of a tavern a few miles from his eventual destination.

Pushing the door, he was greeted by the sounds of boisterous laughter, the smell of sake mixed with sweat and tobacco smoke.

It was a mid-level establishment by the looks of it. The haze of tobacco smoke and dim lighting gave the place a psychedelic vibe.

Dodging the maids and servers on the crowded floor he made his way to the bar.

"Busy night?" He addressed the barkeep an attractive dark headed woman in her late twenties to early thirties.

"You have no idea. The crowd is mostly samurai today though. I am Sia by the way." She said gesturing towards a group of men sitting in a booth drinking and talking loudly while offering Naruto her hand. Their captain had a couple of geishas clinging to his arms as they giggled at something he whispered in their ears. "Not that I am complaining, mind you. So what can I do for you my friend? Wine, women."

"A bottle of warm sake. Don't think I would know what to do with your women."

"Takes a big man to admit that. Though you look like you can handle yourself, but if it makes you feel any better I could persuade them to be gentle you know." The barkeep said placing a bottle of sake and a glass for him pouring him a drink for good measure.

Naruto tipped the glass and finished the drink in 3 long draughts. Good stuff. It had been some time since he had indulged himself.

"Maybe some other time. I need to use the washroom."

"Down the corridor to your left."

"Thank you."

He really needed the brief wash. Weeks of travel grime washed away after several minutes of scrubbing. He didn't have the luxury of a bath at the moment. But he was used to it. The war had made sure of it. He checked his reflection in the mirror, apart from the lack of whisker-marks which he now hid beneath a minor sustained henge, he hadn't changed much about his appearance.

Despite his notoriety, he doubted he would have a hard time blending in. After all most people only knew him by name and most of them were shinobi. He doubted he would run into shinobis so close to a samurai stronghold.

Yeah right. As soon as the thought entered his head he realized how stupid he was being. Every major nation had agents in others. While things had cooled down after the war he would still have to be careful.

Dead men coming back to life was frowned on…. Even in the shinobi world…. Even when you're considered a hero in said world.

When he re-entered the bar his senses picked up on something. He tried to tune it out. It was a gift from a… _friend_. He could sense negative emotions. An ability which the best trackers in the world would give their right hands for.

It was an invaluable ability in the war. Right now it was a pain. It was like an angry buzz in his head which he could ignore most of the time. Right now the buzzing had increased in intensity to the point of giving him a headache.

At times like these it was best to focus on it than to ignore it.

He discerned two signatures, one more intense than the other. Approaching them he saw two girls. Actually one girl and one woman. The girl looked around ten, the woman in her early twenties who at the moment was trying to stave off the attention of a samurai officer.

Naruto's eyes narrowed on seeing the woman. She was trying to pass herself of as a civilian, but it was obvious by the way she held herself that she had some combat training. She may even be a kunoichi. Great! But the girl looked civilian and a little off-color.

"Come on lady it's just a drink." He heard the samurai say.

"I'm sorry but I am not interested." She replied in an irritated tone when her eyes fell on him. "As a matter of fact my husband is here."

Breaking away from the samurai she latched onto Naruto's arm.

"Hey honey, what took you so long?" Her eyes met Naruto's expecting him to play along.

"Yeah sorry about that." He schooled his bewildered features into a sheepish grin as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Wait a minute, you're her husband?" The man focused his glare on Naruto.

Naruto resisted the urge to fire back a taunt.

"Yes I am sir, so if you could just leave us be." Naruto said politely.

"I don't believe you. I think you're just trying to get rid of me so that you can have her yourself." At this point Naruto wanted to point out it was the woman who wanted to get rid of him and not him.

The man was obviously drunk, and Naruto began to think of ways to deal with this. The other samurais in the bar were beginning to give him funny looks and he could see that this wasn't going to be easy.

There were 4 men at the table, so 5 in all and all of them drunk. Who was he kidding this would be a piece of cake.

He turned to the woman who got him into this mess.

"Your companion doesn't look too good, so why don't you take her up? This might get ugly." He muttered under his breath to the woman.

"You don't need to do this." She looked regretful, as if already writing his obituary.

"Yeah I do."

She looked at him like she was about to protest, but then just nodded resignedly.

"Thank you, and I am sorry about all this." She apologized. Part of her knowing he would be lucky to get away with a few broken bones.

"Yeah its no problem." He waved her off. The woman hurriedly exited the bar with the girl making her way to the rooms upstairs.

"Getting your woman out of the way I see, punk." The samurai snarled.

Naruto didn't want to do this, but desperate times…..

"They don't need to be here for what's going happen next." Naruto cracked his neck and knuckles menacingly as he faced the man. The crowd around them tensed into silence.

Yeah, this would be fun.

"…. And then the man says I wasn't talking to you." Naruto said to his audience throwing them in hysterics.

He had been sitting with the soldiers and had spent the next couple of hours happily drinking and bonding with his new friends.

"Man Tenzo, you're the best."

Naruto smiled at his drinking companions.

"So, how long you been married kid?" asked one of his companions

"No, wait, when did you meet?" asked another.

"You're one lucky bastard, having found love so early in your life."

"What's going on in here?" A thoroughly bewildered voice greeted them. The woman looked shocked.

"Hey, Tenzo there's your wife." It was Fai the man who was hitting on the said 'wife'.

"Yeah I better go see, what she wants."

The rest of the men hooted and hollered while he walked towards the woman.

"What's going on in here?" She asked him thoroughly confused.

"A party?" Naruto said as if it was obvious.

"A party? Are you kidding me? When I left I was sure that man was going to break your jaw at the very least. So what changed?" She was totally mystified.

"I made friends with them. Pretty decent guys once you get to know them." Naruto shrugged nonchalantly. "They have been buying me drinks all evening."

"But I thought you were going to fight them."

"Why would I want to do that? They are samurai for crying out loud." Naruto sounded mystified.

The woman looked impressed. Apparently the boy wasn't as stupid as he looked, but to think he befriended them.

"Then why did you tell me to get away from here?"

"Well you had a kid with you in a bar, hardly appropriate setting for a child don't you think? Speaking of which how is she doing?"

"She is running a fever. But she should be fine soon. Just needs some rest. I am sorry I didn't give my name, I am Anya, and the kid is Rei." She offered her hand.

"Finally I got to know the name of my wife. I am Tenzo." Judging by the roughness of her hands and the strength of her grip, a weapons' expert Naruto thought to himself. She was a striking woman. With her jet black hair, high cheek bones and brown eyes. The grime she had accumulated in her journey did nothing to reduce her attractiveness.

"Nice to meet you Tenzo." She looked at him thoughtfully. "I have a feeling we can help each other out."

"I am listening."

**Flashback end**

"Hey Tenzo over here." A voice summoned him pulling him out of his thoughts. Naruto sighed and made his way to his wife and her sister.

"We are in." Naruto told Anya.

"Excellent." Anya smirked.

Life was funny like that. Somehow Anya had managed to convince him to masquerade as her husband. He still wasn't sure how that happened. She was no helpless civilian of that he was sure. Is she an agent of the people who made this settlement or is she acting on someone else's behalf. Well atleast he would be close enough to keep an eye on her.

But she did have a point. A group of 2 or more got priority, when it came to living in the settlement.

The arrangement suited him fine. Something fishy was going on here and he needed to know what it was.

He had worked too hard and sacrificed too much for all of it to unravel so soon.

A dark robed figure gazed down at the now halted construction site.

Progress was slow. But that didn't bother him much. They had all the time in the world.

A gust of wind blew past him, removing the hood of his cloak to reveal, a handsome face.

"Hello Hisagi." The man greeted his unseen companion.

"The plans are moving well my lord." A tall figure joined the man and bowed in supplication.

"So it would seem. How is the new recruit settling in?"

"He has already been through his initiation."

"You don't trust him?"

Hisagi remained silent. It wasn't his place to question his master's decision.

"You may speak freely."

"Undoubtedly powerful he is my lord no doubt, but that he belongs to a wretched clan known for their traitors. He himself being one."

The man looked amused at his outburst. Hisagi was a very patient man. His reaction just proved how strongly he felt about this.

"I am well aware of that Hisagi, but the last Uchiha has his uses."

"Yes, of course my lord."

Having assuaged his subordinates doubts, he silently gazed into the horizon at the rising sun.

The cycle had remained stagnated long enough.

It was time to turn the wheels again.

**So, that's the second chapter done. The official beginning of the series. So please do drop a review. Until next time.**


	3. All but Sundry

**Okay guys, here I am back with another chapter. Enjoy and dont forget to leave a review.**

**All But Sundry**

Walking inside the settlement Naruto realized he had never seen a more defeated set of people. Walking down the path, between rows of makeshift mud houses, he observed as some of the men watched them with open suspicion, the women and children with curiosity.

Anya and Rei followed him closely behind. Rei holding on to the tails of Anya's garment, trying to make herself seem as small as possible. She was a good kid, a bit on the quiet side, mostly speaking through Anya, if she wanted to convey something to Naruto.

Naruto had been a little surprised to learn that they weren't related, nor they knew each other till a few days ago. Anya had found her during her journey half dead from hunger near one of the towns on her way here and had decided to take her along with her.

Rei for her part was extremely attached to the woman.

Naruto could relate.

"Well here we are." Their guide a middle-aged man with salt and pepper hair announced. They had arrived at one of the housing units at the end of the settlement. The unit could only be best described as shack, with crumbling mud walls and a roof which had half caved in. The location wasn't exactly ideal either, with what looked like a sewage dump just a few yards behind the house.

Naruto had lived with worse.

His companion was a different story however.

"You expect us to live in this dump?" Anya cried after a few seconds of bewildered silence.

"Well excuse me if the accommodations aren't up to Your Majesty's liking." The man retorted.

"Why you little…" Anya looked like she was about to tear the man apart, and that's when Naruto decided to intervene before she got them kicked out as he reached out and held her arm.

"It's perfect, thank you." Naruto bowed towards the man. "Please excuse my wife I apologize for her outburst, she is a little spirited."

The man whose eyes were beginning to flash with anger visibly calmed down at Naruto's prompt apology.

"Keep your woman in line then young man."

"Yes, I will. Thank you once again." Naruto gave Anya's arm a slight yank to keep her in place.

The man satisfied by Naruto's submissive gesture, nodded once and walked away.

"What's wrong with you?" Anya snarled at Naruto yanking her arm away.

Naruto never thought he would be calm one in a group…._ Ever._

And yet here he was.

"Calm down you're scaring Rei." Naruto said calmly pointing towards the little girl who had now retreated towards the house gaping at them.

Naruto suppressed a smirk as he saw Anya visibly trying to swallow her anger. He knew he could have argued with her all day, all night, the next day and maybe the day after and they wouldn't have gotten anywhere. So he used Rei instead to give her some perspective.

Psychology 101 gotta love it.

Trying the door, Naruto could see that it was barely hanging off its hinges. The roof wouldn't be any protection against the elements either. Though it won't bother him too much, but with Rei's health as fragile as it was, he would have to do something about it. The structure had 2 rooms. Once he got the place fixed up sleeping really wouldn't be a problem.

Using the collapsed debris on the floor he pushed it up, to give a semblance of protection.

"Why don't you guys get settled in, I will go and see if I can find that blacksmith." The place could use some repair, but he didn't have the tools yet.

Anya nodded once acknowledging that she heard him as she tried to clean the place, the best as she could.

Remembering the directions he had received from the officer in charge, he made his way to the military encampment, near which the blacksmith had set shop.

Following the same path which he had followed to his living space, he was followed by the same stares which he had received while coming.

The blacksmith's workshop was a disappointing site. It was just a furnace housed underneath a tiled roof where a solitary man was hammering away. The workshops in the elemental nations looked so intimidating and sophisticated with dozens of men working non-stop.

The man paused in his work and looked up to see him.

"What you looking at boy?" His voice was uncouth and rough.

"I heard you needed an assistant." Naruto replied.

"You offering your services?"

"Yes, I am."

"I can't pay you much you know." The man said wiping his hands on a dirty rag.

Naruto considered the last statement for a while.

"Well I can't work a lot either. I will be working at the construction site for most of the day anyway."

"Well looks like we have a problem then son cause I don't have time for part-timers." The man folded his beefy arms over his chest and stood up to his full height and was still a head shorter than Naruto.

"Well, how about this, I come and work evenings for you, you pay me what you can, I won't ask for more than what you can spare." Naruto offered.

"What's the catch?" The man narrowed his eyes shrewdly.

"I need some tools to repair the place I have been given. So, if you can loan me some, we have a deal." Naruto said offering his hand.

"You have got yourself a deal boy. The name is Ishaq by the way." The blacksmith ignored the offered hand.

"Tenzo, at your service." Naruto dropped his arm down.

"You better be or I will fire your ass the first chance I get."

"I will keep that in mind." Naruto told the uncouth man.

* * *

"So you're telling me you will be working two jobs at the same time?" Anya asked him once he reached his makeshift home.

She was in the process of boiling some vegetable stew, with the groceries Naruto had managed to acquire with their meager funds over a rudimentary fireplace. Meanwhile Naruto was busy trying to fix the roof with the tools he had acquired from Ishaq.

"We do have to keep ourselves fed and watered don't we? The tyke you've got with you doesn't look like she will last on the current supply of rations." Naruto said gesturing towards Rei with the hammer he was wielding. "Don't worry about me I can handle the workload". He was thankful for all the D-ranked missions he had cursed in his youth now, they had taught him some really important life skills. Now only if he could use the Kage bunshin, but that wouldn't be exactly what you call low profile.

After the Pain invasion as a matter of fact, he had relished the work that came with rebuilding the village. It was good, honest work, building something instead of destroying, even when the building up was the aftermath of a tragedy. It was at this time that he had come to know some his more casual acquaintances a little better. He cherished those memories.

Once he finished he looked down to see Anya staring at him with a peculiar expression on her face.

"What?" Naruto asked a little nonplussed.

"Nothing." Anya quickly averted her gaze once she realized she had been caught staring and went back to stirring the contents of the pot.

Naruto wondered if she was on to him. He thought back to see if he had slipped up somewhere and compromised his cover. No, he hadn't. At least he didn't think so. Still better be careful after all she wasn't what she claimed to be either.

It was during their dinner that Anya brought up an issue which should have been addressed sooner.

By this time Naruto was all but inhaling the broth. It was no ramen and could have used a bit more salt, but he was hungry and living on field rations had given him a cast-iron stomach.

He sighed loudly on finishing his meal, to see both Anya and Rei staring at him with their mouths hanging open slightly, their food all but untouched in their bowls. Speaking of which there still was quite a bit left in the pot.

"You're not going to need seconds are you?" He said gazing at the pot hungrily.

The other occupants of the room just shook their heads mutely a little shocked by his pace of eating as he reached for the pot to finish the rest.

"What about the sleeping arrangements?" Anya questioned once she found her voice.

Naruto wiped his face with the back of his hand. "Well…. you and Rei take one end of the room, I will take the other." Walking over to them Naruto offered his coat to her, Anya glared at him, but his next words thawed her. "Keep her warm." She nodded graciously wrapping the garment around the little girl.

* * *

"Man this is back-breaking work." Hamil one of Naruto's work buddies complained.

"It's definitely no vacation." Naruto agreed, bringing his hammer down on the rock he was busy chipping away at, the fragments were to be used for construction purposes.

"Still don't see how you can keep going on the way you are, the heat is killing me." Hamil mused aloud, as he saw Naruto who he knew as Tenzo hammering away at the rocks without any sign of fatigue, even in the afternoon sun.

Naruto had gotten to know Hamil and a few others during his first morning of work. It had been a few days since he started and he had yet to have any breakthroughs. Though one of the reasons for that was he was still trying to integrate himself into this life so he had to be patient before he began the cloak and dagger process required to really get in. The construction project undertaken was supposed to be an extension of The Land of Iron… A sister city as a centre for commerce, so to speak. At first glance that was all it looked like.

Those were the key words weren't they….. at first glance. It looked like a completely legitimate construction site being built for innocent reasons, then why the hell were his instincts screaming foul play. The workers were paid, no mysterious disappearances, no tyrant forcing the masses to submission, and yet, the more he saw the more convinced he was that this to be marvel of human ingenuity was hiding something.

As a shinobi and a student of Kakashi Hatake the concept of looking underneath the underneath was beaten into him…_ literally._

When this place was done, it would be huge and grand. Already some of the construction had been completed.

Naruto plopped down using the rock he was hammering as a seat as he wiped off some of the sweat from his brow.

"So how long have you been working here Hamil?" Naruto asked his companion.

"I was one of the first settlers you know. So, you can say I have been working here since they started the construction." Hamil said taking a sip from his canteen, before tossing it to Naruto who caught it deftly.

"So you must have seen the whole place."

"Well, most of it anyway."

Naruto's ears perked up.

"So, you haven't seen all of it?" He questioned Hamil.

Hamil looked as he was almost reluctant to talk about it.

"Well there is this one place near the south of the city where the workers are forbidden to go." Hamil admitted.

Bingo.

"Funny story really, me and a couple of my friends had one drink too many once and accidentally ventured a little out of our way after a hard day's work and stumbled onto it."

"Go on." Naruto prompted.

"Before we knew it we had a dozen swords and spears at our throats and bags were thrown over our heads and we were led god knows where."

Okay that definitely wasn't normal.

"So what happened next?"

"We were brought before two men, you know the secretive, aristocratic type. Can't tell you what they looked like, but I felt one of them wanted to eat me alive." Hamil frowned as he continued his tale. "The guards conferred with the men and that's the last thing I remember, the drink must have had an extra kick that day, cause the next day I woke up with a splitting headache."

"Have you talked about this with anyone else before?" Naruto asked.

"No. I don't think so. It never came up until now, now that I think about it."

That got Naruto thinking again. Was Hamil's memory altered? Possible, maybe even probable. But even then it seems he remembers more than he should have. Maybe just a suggestion planted in his head to not think this as important enough to talk about and he wouldn't. Why would he anyway? No one else knew about what had transpired that day except maybe his friends.

Something was definitely going on here. It made him wonder, if asking the right questions will help him get more out of Hamil. Well he had enough for now; he will have to check out his theories later. He still had work to do.

* * *

"I have to hand it to you kid, you're no artist but you do seem to know your way around weapons." Ishaq commented as Naruto hammered away on a dented shield.

Naruto managed a chuckle at this roundabout compliment. "So does that mean you aren't going to fire me Ishaq?"

"Help is hard to find these days and I gotta work with what I have." Ishaq snorted in response.

It had been a week since Naruto had started working in Ishaq's forage. The work wasn't much and it mainly consisted of repairing the weapons for the samurai.

"Have you been giving him a hard time again Ishaq?" Came a stern feminine voice from the door and Naruto had to suppress a smile as he turned to the motherly figure of Ishaq's wife, Kara while Ishaq snorted in response.

"Good evening Kara-san." Naruto greeted her. Kara redirected her glare from her husband to Naruto except now her glare was a gentle smile. Ever since she had laid her eyes on him she had developed a soft spot for him.

"Hello Tenzo." She responded to his greeting. "I want both of you to wash up and come to the table, I have made dumplings."

"Won't say no to those. I had a hard day at work today." Naruto said as he washed his hands and face at the basin.

"I think you work too hard. Boys your age shouldn't have to." Kara frowned.

"Nonsense, if you had your way, you would be spoon-feeding anyone under the age of 18. He is a man with a wife and a family that he has to feed, and he knows it so leave him be woman." Ishaq said as he proceeded to take a dumpling and was promptly slapped away.

They glared at each other for a while before Ishaq shrugged and made his way to the basin to wash up. Kara wore a smirk of triumph at the victory, while Naruto happily devoured the dumplings, oblivious to the exchange.

* * *

_The earth smelled of burnt flesh and smoke. The very landscape had been restructured by the battle that had just concluded. The skies had darkened and soon a steady drizzle hit his face._

_His view to the sky was blocked by a blonde-headed blue-eyed man, standing over him. His burnt cloak flapping in the wind and blood streaming steadily from one of his arms._

_Despite his predicament, he couldn't help but smile at his situation. Four years ago they were in a similar situation, only reversed. _

_Oh, the irony. _

_Despite everything he had kept his promise .He had shouldered his hatred and stripped him off it. Maybe this was how it was always supposed to be._

_He didn't close his eyes in anticipation of the final blow however. He was an Uchiha. The Uchiha were a lot of things proud, arrogant, some might even say conceited, traitorous even, but they were no cowards and he wouldn't shame his ancestors._

_Moreover the fear of death had lost its hold over him the day he had killed his brother._

_No, he wasn't afraid to die. _

"_So, this is how it ends." He couldn't help saying. In a way he was glad this would be over soon. That was the only thing he was looking forward to right now. But the man standing over him said two words he last expected to hear._

"_Not yet."_

Sasuke opened his eyes as he surveyed his surroundings. No threats as far as he could tell. His bed was simple but comfortable. Pulling a robe over his bare torso, he made his way out. It was still dark, but dawn was breaking in the horizon.

"You can come out, I know you're there." He called out to the darkness.

An extremely tall, cloaked figure materialized a few feet behind him.

"How did you know?" The figure asked managing to keep the amazement out of his voice.

"With the killing intent you ooze out, it wasn't that hard. You won't be winning any prizes for being stealthy." Sasuke taunted.

"Oh no, hiding like a rat is not a shinobi skill-set I suppose." The figure retaliated.

"If you have nothing to say to me, I would suggest you leave." Sasuke said in a relatively calm tone, but the surrounding temperature felt like it dropped 10 degrees. The figure wisely decided to retreat at this point.

"Oh and one more thing." Sasuke's words stopped the man dead in his tracks. "Spy on me again and I swear they will never find the body. Hiding something is a skills-set I am extremely proficient at."

The man stiffened before disappearing in a body-flicker.

Sasuke smirked at his victory in this strength of wills, but his thoughts soon led him to another direction.

_Naruto._

**So, thats that. Things are a little slow for now but they are gonna pick up next chapter onwards and I have quite a few surprises planned. Now I come to the point where I beg for more reviews, and pray to the almighty that I am not disappointed. Who am I kidding? The review department for my stories has been drier than the sand in Kalahari desert. But a man can hope can't he? Anyway until next time.**_  
_


	4. Shattered Illusion

**Shattered Illusion**

Akashi ran as fast as his legs could carry him between the streets of the settlement as he was chased by 3 samurai guards.

"Just wait till we get a hold of you, you little runt," shouted one of them, as he tripped over a wheelbarrow. Akashi laughed heartily as he jumped over the housing units weaving between the people as he managed to finally lose the guards.

But he still needed a place to lie low.

Without thinking he jumped through the first window he could find, pressing himself against the wall.

It wasn't long before he heard footsteps approach the house.

"Hey kid. Did you see a little boy run down here?" came the booming voice of one of the samurais who was chasing him.

"No, sir I didn't." Replied an unfamiliar voice.

"You wouldn't lie to us would you?" Another said trying to sound menacing.

"No, sir I wouldn't. I just came back from work at the site you see. So I wouldn't have seen anyone even if they went this way."

"Let it go, he is probably getting away as we speak."

The retreating footsteps of the samurai told Akashi that he was safe for now. His relief however was short-lived, as he saw one set of footsteps entering the house. Pushing himself as close to the walls as he could he tried to blend in the relative darkness trying to avoid detection.

"You can come out now. They are gone."

Damn. Was he discovered already? No, he is better hidden than that. He must be talking to someone else.

"Come out kid I don't bite." Came the voice again.

He hesitated, but something about that voice just inspired trust and after a few seconds of procrastinating he tentatively stepped out to reveal himself. The sight that greeted him left him gaping for a minute.

The man who had summoned him was hanging upside down from the ceiling, his legs hooked over a bar of wood, as he began hammering away what looked like rotten wood over the ceiling, finally breaking away that portion of the roof completely with a few strong whacks of his hammer.

"Hand me the wood would you?" The man requested Akashi without looking at him.

Snapping himself back, Akashi picked up the wood lying on the floor. It was heavy but he managed to heave it up and with some difficulty handed it to the man. It looked sturdier than the wood used to make the other houses of the settlement.

The man took it from him as if it weighed nothing and placed it over the portion he had just broken and started working on it to fix it.

Akashi watched him in awe as the man worked, who on closer look seemed to be a teenager rather than a grown man.

For the next several minutes the man kept making little requests from him as he worked around the house and he kept complying without even knowing why.

Before long he was asking little questions of his own. What was he doing? Why he was doing it? Why was this particular knot better than the other? Why should he angle the hammer before hitting a nail on the head and go straight afterwards? The man answered his questions with a smile. He seemed as eager to answer his questions as he was to ask them.

It was a new experience for him. All the adults he knew preferred to ignore him when they weren't accusing him of stealing.

They were working on installing some shelves, when the door opened to admit a woman and a girl about his age carrying bags of groceries

"Oh Tenzo! I didn't know you were back." The woman said.

"Oh yeah, got off work early today, and there wasn't much to do at Ishaq's either so I just went and repaired the roof." Tenzo replied.

The woman just shook her head but there was a smile on her face. It vanished as soon as her gaze fell on him. Akashi knew what came next. She probably would kick him out.

"But I am being rude. Anya this is…. Actually I don't think I got your name." The man Tenzo exclaimed.

Akashi considered lying for a minute, but then changed his mind.

"I am Akashi."

"Did you say Kakashi?" Tenzo asked.

"What…um…".

"Well Akashi has been a big help around the house today. So, I was wondering if he could stay for lunch."Tenzo clapped him on the shoulder as if he was an old friend of his.

Anya looked incredulous for a while before her face turned resigned. The little girl with Anya giggled at Tenzo's antics . "Fine, do what you want."

"Great. So Akashi meet my wife Anya and that's Rei." Tenzo said clapping his hands together.

The meal was an awkward affair, with Tenzo providing most of the conversation. Anya still looked at him with a trace of mistrust in her eyes, but he didn't mind. The meal was the best he had in his life and he was beginning to like Tenzo, despite his slight eccentricities. The wife was pretty, but seemed a little aloof. Rei on the other hand seemed shy, but kept glancing between the three of them.

It made him wonder what made Tenzo marry her. He hadn't seen two people more different than each other. She looked a little older than him and obviously didn't approve of Tenzo having invited him for lunch, but at least she hadn't kicked him out yet, which was more than he could say for the rest of the people here.

After lunch Tenzo offered to walk him home. He declined but Tenzo ignored him and joined in anyway.

"You forgot your pouch by the way." Tenzo said offering him a dirty pouch of dumplings he had acquired from the guards, the reason they were chasing him.

Tenzo looked at him warily as if afraid he would turn him in, but he merely smiled and placed it into his pocket.

"Thanks." Akashi finally said once he was sure Tenzo wasn't inclined to get him to the guards.

"No problem. You got them for your friends didn't you?"

Akashi nodded once in assent. He felt a hand on top of his head as it ruffled his head. The gesture nearly brought tears to his eyes which he blinked back.

Soon, they were standing in front of a rundown building in the middle of the settlement. Soon Tenzo was surrounded by a bunch of kids his age, some younger while the others slightly older. But it was obvious to Naruto that they looked up to Akashi as a sort of leader, who just smiled and handed out the dumplings.

"Who is this?" One of the older kids called out to Akashi as he eyed Naruto suspiciously.

"I'm a friend of his. Name is Tenzo." Naruto answered before Akashi could reply. "Who is your caretaker?"

"Don't have one." Said another joining the conversation.

Naruto eyed the place up and down, yes the place looked extremely rundown.

"Looks like your place could use a few repairs." Naruto said conversationally.

"And who is going to do them? You?" Akashi said rhetorically.

Naruto turned to the boy who spoke, who looked defiantly at him a smirk playing on his face. Challenging him. Naruto understood where he was coming from. They were the orphans of war. No one cared about them. Words like the ones Naruto had just spoken meant nothing to them. So he decided to do what he did best. Act.

"Tell you what? Since you were so helpful at my house today, why don't I return the favor? I will repair your house for you." His audience's jaws dropped at hearing this.

"What's the catch?" One boy asked.

"No catch. Akashi helped me around my house, it's only fair I return the favor." Naruto shrugged casually to his still stunned audience.

When Naruto came home later that evening he was a little surprised to see Anya waiting for him wearing an irritated expression on her face.

Naruto had known quite a few temperamental women in his life. Considering the fact that the list included women like Sakura and Tsunade, made it all the more impressive. Both of them able to punch grown men through walls. Naruto having been on the receiving end of quite a few of those punches, his wariness was understandable.

"So, Anya what's up?" He said in his best jaunty voice.

"Where were you?" Anya folded her arms beneath her chest.

"I just dropped Akashi home."

"Speaking of which, who was he?"

"Just a kid who was hiding from some samurai chasing him." Naruto said nonchalantly.

"You just let him in?"

"To be fair he was already in…"

"How can you let a thief inside the house? What were you thinking?" Anya interrupted him, now growing more agitated.

"Calm down, its not like we have anything worth stealing anyway." Naruto tried to placate her.

"That's not the point. You allowed a stranger in the house…" She kept ranting and Naruto tuned her out.

"Will it help if I apologize?"

That stopped her in her tracks. He looked like he meant it too.

"Fine, as long as it never happens again." She said recovering some of her bluster.

Seeing the anger draining from her face, Naruto almost sighed in relief. But it all came down to experience he supposed. The skill required to diffuse tempers was something he had learnt well. Plus with everything going on, he could hardly waste time on marital strife. He had hit a dead end with his self-appointed mission. After the initial breakthrough he had with Akashi, he had talked to his work buddies. Unfortunately they didn't have anything more to add to what he had already discerned from Hamil.

Neither did Naruto for that matter. He had scoured the south of the city during his nightly visits, but no luck. Is it possible that Hamil was mistaken about the location he had run into? He was drunk after all.

Kami he missed he missed the old days when he could just have used a thousand shadow clones to search the entire area. It would have taken him mere hours as compared to the weeks that he would end up taking. But that wasn't an option, without him giving himself away. He was a chakra beacon at the most normal times when he was in a chakra dense ninja village. Using chakra here, he might as well paint the city red saying he is here.

Another thing which bothered him were the absence of any high level samurai guards here. As far as he could tell, there were hardly any chakra users let alone competent samurai here.

Maybe…. They are hidden just like he is. His own 'wife' was one of the suspects after all.

Just what was going on here?

Over the next few days Naruto kept himself busy with working, looking for more clues and socializing with the people around him.

He had gained their trust. With his helpful nature, friendly smile and undying enthusiasm he had almost turned the place around. The people liked him and he was greeted pleasantly every time he ran into one of them.

But the most profound bond he formed was with the orphans. He was a big brother, friend and father figure all rolled in one for them. The orphans for one followed him like an army following their general.

He had won their trust when he had worked to repair their home.

"Why are you helping us?" Akashi had asked him the day he had showed up to do the repairs.

"I promised I would didn't I?"

"I still don't see why you would bother? We are the dregs of the society, to be ignored and eventually forgotten." Akashi said bitterly. "Hey!" He exclaimed rubbing his head once Naruto cuffed him.

"Stop being an emo. And stop spouting that nonsense since you don't even believe it." Naruto retorted. He was in the process of sawing the wood he had gotten, as he continued. "As to why I am helping you. Like I said, it was because I promised."

"That's it?" Akashi wasn't satisfied with this answer.

Naruto stopped working and looked straight into his eyes.

"Do I need any other reason?" Seeing Akashi struggle Naruto decide to impart a few pearls of his wisdom. "Listen kid, we came to this world with nothing and one day we will leave it taking nothing. The time in between is all that matters. Every man has something he believes in. His convictions. Things he has lived by and things he will die for. Me….. My conviction is to never go back on my word. When I made you the promise of helping you out, I chose to come here."

"Money, fame, power you may attain them in your lifetime, you may not. Sometimes things will go your way, other times they won't. But the only constant in your life will be your own convictions and your own actions resulting from those convictions. Always keep that in mind kid."

Akashi had listened to him with a gaping mouth.

"You talk like an old man." He finally said resulting in Naruto holding him by the neck and giving him a noogie. "Hey, cut it out you bastard."

"So, this is where you have been." Those words had frozen him in his tracks. Anya. Crap. But when he turned around to face her, he was surprised to see the lack of anger in her face. In fact her face radiated no anger at all. It was more speculative, as if trying to figure out a puzzle she wasn't sure she wanted to solve yet.

"Hey Anya, I was just helping out here." He started to explain.

"Come home when you are done." She cut him off before he could continue.

Anya's behavior had confused him, but since then she didn't give him a hard time about spending time with the orphans. She held no love for them, but she had grown tolerant to their presence. Even Rei was starting to open up more, now that she was spending time with kids her age.

Naruto in his spare time had begun teaching the children some of the life skills he had attained during his own early years. Reading and writing along with some woodwork. In just a month he had turned the group of troublemakers into a work force which was pulling its own weight.

Over time Naruto had also become the unofficial leader of the people residing in the settlement becoming something of a mediator between the samurai and the civilians.

It had all started during Naruto's work at Ishaq's forges where he came in contact with most of the samurai who came there to get their weapons and armor repaired. It had helped him built some camaraderie with them. Over time he just grew into the role.

At the moment he was negotiating a proposal to turn some of the wastelands between the samurai encampment and the settlement into farmland. They had reached a sort of stalemate, with the samurai claiming they needed the lands for training purposes (Naruto personally called bullshit on that). But he expected a breakthrough. The diplomatic skills he had attained were coming handy now. More than once he had stopped the people from breaking into a riot.

So entwined was he in his life as a civilian that soon his original reasons for coming here began to lose priority.

It was only cemented when one day he came home one day to see the table laid out with wild rice and roast duck. The aroma was enough to leave him drooling. The image was completed by the woman who was waiting on him sitting at the table.

When she saw him enter the house, her face broke into a gentle smile. Naruto really saw Anya that night. She was a beautiful woman. An earthly beauty gentle yet fierce. Her brown eyes sparkled brightly in the candlelight. Her hair was let down from its usual braid. She looked regal, almost like royalty, and for the first time Naruto realized how little he knew of the woman in front of her.

"Hello Tenzo." She beckoned him towards the table.

"Anya." Naruto acknowledged her. "Where is Rei?"

"Oh she went out. She made some friends, she will be back later."

Naruto knew who the friends were.

"I thought you didn't approve of them." Naruto ventured cautiously.

"I think I may have judged them a little harshly." She admitted.

Naruto wasn't sure what to say next and fidgeted nervously. When he studied Anya he could see that she was just as uncomfortable as he was.

"Look I wanted to apologize." She finally said breaking the awkward silence.

"What for?" Naruto asked a little nonplussed.

Taking a deep breath she began. "I have been a jerk to you ever since we met. The first time when that Samurai was hitting on me at the bar, I used you to reject his advances…."

"I really didn't mind that." Naruto tried to wave her off.

"Then I actually got you to act like you are my husband…"

"That benefitted both of us didn't it? I mean we got an entire unit to ourselves because we are 'married'.'" Naruto interrupted her again.

"Will you let me finish?" Anya's nostrils flared in irritation.

"Yeah sorry." Naruto said sheepishly.

Anya glared at him making sure he won't interrupt her again.

"Look what I am trying to say is that you have been good to me and Rei, when you really didn't have to be. You do deserve better from me." She finished.

Naruto waited for a moment before finally deeming it safe to speak again.

"You are being too hard on yourself Anya. You have been good to me. I do love your cooking." He was stretching the truth on the last bit. But she was trying to be nice, he couldn't fall behind. Moreover the dinner she had put up looked very appetizing.

"You're sweet Tenzo." She smiled at him. "Come on dig in."

Naruto was only too happy to comply. The rice was a little underdone, the duck a little overdone, but it was a pleasant meal nevertheless.

"Almost feels like a date." It took a while for Naruto to process what he had blurted out. The temperature in the room seemed to plummet. "I didn't mean it like a date date, like between boyfriends or girlfriends."

"No, it's a date between a husband and his wife." Anya said.

"Exact….." Naruto glared at Anya, her eyes lighting up with mirth. "You're having too much fun with this aren't you?"

"Maybe. But would it be so bad if it was a date?" She said nonchalantly.

"No. I guess it wouldn't." Naruto's tone was low and thoughtful.

"You haven't done this a lot have you?"

"Try never." All his failed attempts at getting Sakura to go out with him came to mind.

"What made you stop?" She asked him.

"Stop what?"

"Stop trying." She persisted. "I mean we have been living together for weeks now, and in this time you have shown no interest in me or any other woman for that matter. For a while I did consider the fact that you were gay, but you aren't interested in men either. Its almost as if you have given up."

Naruto sighed.

"I was in love with a girl once. She was in love with my best friend then there was another girl who was in love with me. All of us eventually went our separate ways."

"That's it?"

"In a nutshell…yes." Naruto helped himself to some rice. "What about you?"

"I was in love once. But his duty came in between us." She said.

"That's it?"

"In a nutshell…yes."

"Is that the reason you came here?" He asked her.

She absently fingered the gold pendant around her neck.

"Where are you from Tenzo?" She said. Naruto just smiled at her having seen through her attempts to change the subject.

"Am from the Land of fire. Used to be my home."

"Will you ever go back?"

"I don't know." Naruto said in a resigned tone. The arrival of Rei soon after ended their date. Over the next few days however they had continued to grow closer.

Naruto was falling into the monotony of a domestic life and had all but forgotten his original reasons to come here. In his more insightful moments he had even begun to wonder what his life would be living here.

He could do that. He had made enough sacrifices, done his duty and brought peace to a previously chaotic world. He had also found a somewhat dysfunctional family in Anya and Rei. A small part of him was also beginning to hope that he could probably even be a real husband to Anya. He certainly cared about her enough to consider that possibility.

He was sure she was running from her old life. Maybe her estranged lover. In a way so was he. Running from a world which no longer needed him. Maybe that was why he was looking for problems where there weren't any. He needed another crusade. He probably needed to save the world again. Sakura had called it his hero complex. The world doesn't need saving anymore. Maybe there weren't any wars to fight anymore. He could finally hang up his boots.

"Hey Anya." He greeted her on entering his house. His surprise knew no bounds when he saw her eyes were red and puffy. Was she crying? "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." She said hurriedly wiping her eyes. "Come on I have made lunch. Rei will be home soon too."

Throughout lunch Naruto carefully observed Anya. She looked distressed and agitated.

"What's bothering you?" Naruto asked her once they were done with lunch and cornered her near their makeshift kitchen.

What Anya did next left him speechless and shut off his brain. She grabbed him by the face and pulled him into a kiss. After the first few seconds he started kissing back. She broke the kiss after a while and kissed him again, this time a lot more gently. When Naruto looked at her again she seemed to have visibly calmed down.

"Let's leave this place Tenzo." These words alarmed him more than the kiss had. "You, me and Rei. We don't need to be here. We can walk away."

"What's wrong with you Anya?" Naruto couldn't help asking. "What's going on?"

"Listen Tenzo, you need to trust me on this. Something is going to happen and we need to get away from here. Please don't ask me to explain, I really need you to trust me, please." She was literally begging now.

Naruto looked at the woman in front of him. Was she involved? She definitely knew what was going on?

"Anya I need you to tell me what's going on? Why isn't it safe?" At this her eyes hardened. "Nothing forget I said anything."

Naruto looked at her hard and she returned his glare. A part of him wanted to go to work on her. Find out what she knows. But she had clammed up. The time he would spend trying to get the info out of her would be better served if he worked on his old leads.

He had had an epiphany just now. When he had asked Hamil about the place where he was picked from, he had told him it was towards the south of the city. But that was at the start of the construction. It had been months since then. The city had expanded. He couldn't believe how stupid he had been.

No wonder he hadn't found anything. He had been looking at the wrong place.

And judging by Anya's actions he may have run out of time.

The illusion had broken.


	5. The Accursed

**The Accursed**

**Well guys, welcome to another chapter of Shinobi diaries. So, buckle up this chapter promises a lot of action and a twist. This is the chapter where the story picks up. It might have a few grammatical errors, so feel free to point them out. Anyway enjoy.**

Naruto rushed to the construction site, silently cursing himself. He had grown sloppy. Gone against his instincts. Something that could have gotten him killed. Something that still might get him killed or heaven forbid any innocents.

What vexed him the most was Anya. He knew she was a soldier. Maybe a kunoichi. He doubted the latter however. He had assumed that she was a runaway. She had managed to fool him into thinking that. A part of him wanted to interrogate her right then and there. But something in her manner told him that it wouldn't do any good. He had to work with what he knew.

As far as he knew the elemental nations shouldn't have any interest in the settlement. It was under the sovereignty of the Land of Iron, which was governed exclusively by the Samurai lords. Not that that would stop the Kages from keeping an eye on the developments. But they obviously weren't keen on pursuing something like this so soon after the war, just when they had acquired their goodwill. Someone had taken the advantage of this. Someone who knew they wouldn't be looked into.

Pretty damn smart in Naruto's humble opinion if you ask.

That was the reason he came here in the first place anyway. To look into the things no one else would.

But the allure of a normal life proved too much even for him.

He approached the construction site silently.

The gates had been completed just a few days back. Huge and imposing at over twenty feet, they were made of wrought iron. He scaled it with a single jump, landing on his feet nimble like a cat. He waited for an alarm to be raised. He sighed in partial relief when none was. He usually would have been more careful, but something told him he was on the clock tonight.

And he needed to move… fast.

Doing some quick calculations in his head, Naruto tried to triangulate the area where Ishaq might have been captured.

Putting his fingers together to form the ram seal, Naruto uttered the words that earned him the moniker of Konoha's one man army.

"Taijuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu."

300 clones soon dispersed in the direction that Naruto had circled off as a possible site.

No time for subtlety.

5 minutes later one of his clones dispelled. Hurrying to the place Naruto studied the thing which caught his clone's attention.

The building he was standing in front of was a smaller than the surrounding ones. Probably meant to be used as a residential complex. It was a regular three story complex spread out over approximately 1500 square feet of land.

But that wasn't what had drawn his clones attention. It was the insignia resembling a Sun over the gate to the complex which Naruto guessed was the symbol of the company involved in making the complex. The nodes of representing the rays of the sun looked surprisingly like the supplementary branches of a seal.

As he followed the nodes, the seal began to reveal geometric patterns consistent with the designs of a summoning contract.

Naruto's intrigue was soon giving way to horror the more he studied the seal.

It was indeed a seal for summoning. But summoning what?

Nightmares of Orochimaru's snake summons during the Chunnin Exams haunted him to this date. And judging by the complexity of the seal, the summon would be big.

Carefully following the patterns along the ground, Naruto found what he was looking for. The principle seal was attached to several secondary seals.

Seals designed to keep people out. He found the regular detection seals, along with an entrapment seal. Triggering them might result anywhere between a painful death of the intruder to instant immobilization.

Whoever designed the seal however was no master. Everything that had been done was textbook, even though they had done a good job of hiding it.

Despite all the intrinsic layers of the seal, it still only had one trigger. The seal could be unlocked only using the blood of the maker. But Naruto could easily find a way around that.

All it required him to do was erase a few components and add another. Working carefully so that he didn't disturb the rest of the arrangement, Naruto channeled some chakra to his fingertips making them glow an ethereal blue.

Working with the dexterity of heart surgeon, Naruto started to erase the components of the seal. One mistake and it might wind up blowing in his face. Once he was satisfied, Naruto bit into his finger drawing blood and started adding components of his own.

Redesigning a seal wasn't as hard as it would have looked. All it needed was a lot of caution and some competence. Naruto had gained a lot of the former over the years and the latter was beaten into him by Jiraiya.

After a few more minutes of work, he channeled some chakra into his palm and slammed it into the seal matrix.

The entire seal glowed blue, before the ground collapsed to fall into stairs, leading underground. Despite the gravity of the situation Naruto couldn't suppress a smirk at his handiwork.

As he started following the stairs leading into a corridor his hearing picked up a low chanting chorus. The faint orange glow at the end of the corridor wasn't helping Naruto's sense of paranoia.

Walking as noiselessly as he could Naruto walked inside the corridor.

As a shinobi Naruto had seen his share of strange things in life. Hell he was one of those strange things, as the Jinchuriki of the Kyuubi. But what he was witnessing right now probably would be close to top of the weird things he had seen, including dead warriors coming back to life.

A dozen or so cloaked figures stood around in a circle surrounding the source of the orange glow Naruto had seen from the corridor. They were chanting some sort of hymn, their hands raised to the heavens in prayer, swaying side to side in the rhythm.

But that wasn't the strange part.

As Naruto took a closer look at the orange glow, he could make out something trying to get out. But no matter how hard he tried he couldn't detect any chakra from it.

That scared him.

He didn't know what was happening, or what that creature was, but all he knew was that he couldn't let that thing in.

Before he could do anything else the figures stopped chanting and stood still, hands still raised. The orange glow had now turned red. A deep growl resonated from the depths of the Earth.

That's when Naruto decided to act. From the looks of things the whole room was a summoning chamber with seals lining the entire room.

Thing about seals. They were extremely volatile.

Without further ado, Naruto channeled some chakra into his palm, in preparation of the technique which made his father a terror during the Third Shinobi War.

**"Rasengan"**

His shout had alerted everyone in the room. Their surprised faces hidden beneath their hoods. But it was too late. Naruto had slammed the swirling blue ball in the floor of the room.

The resultant explosion was devastating. As the entire room collapsed.

Naruto came to life with a gasp, followed by a series of coughs which hurt his ribs.

What happened? Was he at war? Were his comrades okay? These were the first thoughts that assaulted his mind before he got his bearings. Knowing where he was hardly a consolation.

The seals, those hooded figures, the creature... a roar. Man he hadn't expected this. When he had powered that Rasengan he had only hoped to disrupt the seals, not destroy the sealing chamber. It might have been overkill, but Naruto seriously didn't want to face whatever was coming through. Especially since he didn't even know what was coming.

He waited a minute for the ringing in his ears to stop or at least subside to manageable levels, when he realized he had another problem. He was trapped under probably a ton of debris. Focusing his chakra onto his palms, he pushed hard, but it didn't budge.

He finally clawed his way out on his third try.

Taking a deep breath in the open air, Naruto collapsed again. When he got his bearings again, he saw the extent of the destruction caused by him. Everything around a three block radius had been leveled.

Gingerly getting to his feet, as his bones started realigning themselves, eliciting another gasp of pain from him. He had to get to the settlement... fast.

As he made his way back to the settlement, Naruto's Uzumaki vitality kicked in. Within ten minutes of moving he was already moving well enough. Probably won't be any good in a fight yet. But he would cross that bridge if he got to it.

When he reached the settlement, he was greeted by the sight of burning buildings.

His worst fears had just come true.

Ignoring his aching limbs Naruto broke into sprint and almost immediately had to duck to avoid decapitation by a katana. His opponent swung furiously while Naruto weaved and dodged to avoid the strikes, this went on for several seconds, before another blade pierced his right lung from his blind spot, right before he turned into a log, his opponent's eyes widening comically in surprise as one word went through his head.

_Ninja._

Naruto sighed in partial relief. His impromptu kawarimi had just save his life. Gotta love that jutsu. He was barely in any shape to fight one of them, nut now it seemed there were two. From his cover he saw his attacker. Standing well over 6 feet tall, the man was dressed in samurai armor, a demonic mask covering his face, with a horned helmet.

His other attacker who had nearly skewered him on the other hand was smaller than the first one, but was similarly dressed.

Naruto noticed something strange. Despite the burning buildings, he heard no screams.

Spreading his senses, Naruto started building up his chakra. Like a raging river which had been held back by a dam, his entire chakra flooded his system. Immediately, the rest of his wounds closed up and his back straightened.

He had refrained from doing this so far, because if he had done this before he might have imploded while he was still injured. But now that some his residual chakra had healed him enough to withstand his real power, he could cut lose, and he would need it too, cause he could hear a low growl emanating from behind him.

So, something did come through after all.

Naruto turned to look at the source of the growl.

It was a creature straight out of nightmares. It was shaped like a wolf, with flaming red fur and golden brown eyes. Standing at 20 feet from nose to tail and over 6 feet off the ground it was bigger than any other wolf Naruto had seen in his life. Blood dripping from its maw.

Naruto's eyes narrowed and the wolf lunged.

Naruto moved away in time, the wolf landing where Naruto was a split second ago, shattering the pavement in the process. Somersaulting away Naruto was quickly pursued by the wolf. Funny thing, he couldn't feel any chakra from this beast. Something this big had to have chakra. However he decided to put this away for later.

His senses alerted him to another presence behind him. Killing intent directed at him. He had to time this just right. Dodging a swipe from the beast Naruto slid along the floor getting some distance from it, his eyes never leaving it. The beast was fast, but he was faster. The beast growled low as it glared at him and crouched again ready to pounce.

The beast lunged. Naruto remained motionless remaining impassive. The beast's jaw closed around Naruto.

Only it wasn't Naruto the beast tasted. Its teeth piercing the samurai's armor like it was paper. The scream of the samurai never leaving his throat. Too engrossed in its meal it didn't register an attack from above as Naruto landed on its head driving a rasengan through its skull. Bluish-green fluid expelled from its maw as the power ball drilled a hole where its brain used to be.

A scream followed by a whoosh of air alerted Naruto to a lightening chakra imbued katana strike, which Naruto sidestepped. For a second Naruto saw the eyes of his attacker. They were filled with rage and hatred. His miss left him open to a counter by Naruto. Gathering chakra on his index finger, Naruto created a mini rasengan and drove it into the ribs of his opponent sending him spinning away and crashing into a house 15 feet away.

It was something Naruto worked on during the war. While the damage wasn't as widespread as a regular rasengan, it was ten times more concentrated. Ideal for piercing armor like the one worn by this samurai.

His last attack wouldn't have killed him, which was a good thing as Naruto wanted him alive. He needed to know what had happened and someone to interrogate would be good.

The samurai got to his feet, groaning in pain. It was the bigger one. His armor had cracked, where Naruto had driven his rasengan. He was about to collapse, but used his sword to prop himself up. Panting, still glaring at Naruto with hate now mixed with a healthy dose of fear.

"You're at the ends of your rope my friend. So, what do you say you surrender and this won't need to be as painful as it would otherwise be." Naruto addressed him.

The man didn't answer and just kept glaring at him. Naruto sighed once.

"Very well have it your way." But before Naruto could make a move he was alerted by another build-up of chakra. Acting fast Naruto enacted another kawarimi with a wheelbarrow just before he was fried by a lightening jutsu.

"Not the best way to greet your husband is it?" Naruto addressed Anya in a mocking tone, who was now supporting the other Samurai one arm over her shoulder. She was dressed in a Samurai armor but without the mask.

"Tenzo. If that is even your real name." Anya's tone was cool emotionless.

"Maybe not. But then it seems I am not the only one with secrets." Anya remained silent. "Is this what you were here for? Massacring innocents?" Naruto gestured with his arms to the burning settlement.

"Don't pretend to know what my cause is Tenzo. It won't do any good."

"Well, then I guess we do this the hard way." Naruto slipped into his fighting stance.

"We could. Or you could skirt the settlement for survivors. I am sure there is someone you could save if you hurry." Anya countered, making Naruto falter. Taking a deep breath Naruto dropped out of his fighting stance. She was right, he could feel someone alive a hundred yards to his right. It was fragile and needed help.

"I will be coming for you." Naruto fired a parting shot in a low even tone, but the intention was clear as Anya grabbed her comrade walking away.

Anya looked back and Naruto saw tear tracks running down her face, before she disappeared in a shunshin.

Running hard Naruto dug through the debris to drag out the frail figure of Rei. She was injured badly, but it didn't seem like the beast hurt her. But her head was bleeding and it seemed like she was barely hanging on to consciousness.

She would die before he could get her any help. Knowing what he had to do, Naruto rolled up his sleeves, revealing a seal on his forearm. Bringing the girl's mouth close to it he ordered. "Bite."

Rei obeyed docilely sinking her teeth into Naruto's flesh. Almost immediately she seemed to glow. Her wounds closed up but she couldn't seem to let go. She kept holding to Naruto's arm like a drowning child thrown a lifeline, which wasn't far from the truth, all the while Naruto kept a stream of encouraging words, trying to calm the obviously terrified girl while patting her head.

When she was done, she collapsed in exhaustion in Naruto's arm.

"Tenzo." She whispered as she opened her eyes to see the visage of her savior. But Naruto had been rendered speechless as he looked into the eyes of the girl, whose irises now had one tomoe each.

* * *

In a decrepit house several miles away, a group of hooded figures were discussing the events of the night.

"Something went wrong." The one who looked like the leader said.

"Maybe the summoning seals failed." Offered another.

"No, they were perfect they should have worked."

"Or maybe someone intervened. Maybe this charade wasn't as hidden as we were led to believe." Scoffed another.

"I wonder why that is..."

"Enough!" Their leader roared, bringing order to the meeting. "It was a minor setback. Remember this was just the experimental summoning. Any news from the acolytes?"

"They are believed to have perished my lord." Came the reply from one of the figures.

"Now what?"

"Now we wait."

**Well, that's done. I know I will be getting quite a few questions for this chapter. So keep them coming. Thanks to everyone who has reviewed, followed or favorited the story. Until next time. **


	6. A Soldier's Home

**A Soldier's Home**

Anya squeezed the water from the bandages as she applied a fresh set over her comrade's ribs, who winced in pain. She worked methodically and efficiently. All the time thinking about her time in the settlement, Rei and..._ Tenzo._

When she had taken this assignment she had jumped in without thinking. As a way to escape. What she hadn't expected was meeting someone like Tenzo. She was already dreading the debrief.

"Who the hell was that?" Her companion coughed out.

"You shouldn't speak Taichi. Your ribs have shattered." Anya pushed him back on his back. That attack was unbelievable. What's more, it was dealt with one finger. If it hadn't for the armor Taichi would have been dead for sure.

It was the day after the conclusion... of her stay in the settlement, for the lack of a better term and they were taking a break to treat Taichi's wounds.

"Why didn't you fight him? I am sure you could have taken him on." Taichi said reproachfully to his female companion.

"Because I needed to get you out of there... alive. And if you are so bent on dying, I will kill you here and now."

"I need to know who that was. He was toying with us the whole time. So I really need to know Anya... Who was he?" Akira snarled. This mission was supposed to be easy. He was told to kill anyone who survived the beast's wrath. But the beast had turned on them. He would have questioned his orders, but he was samurai, his duty was to follow and protect his liege, not question his orders.

Anya looked at Akira, her face a mask of detachment and indifference.

"I don't know."

* * *

Naruto was sitting in a bar, nursing his glass of sake. It had been a week since he left the settlement and was now on the road again. It was mid-morning and the bar was relatively uncrowded. He had a lot of thinking to do.

The first and foremost being what he was going to do now.

His instincts were correct after all. Something had gone down there. But for the hell of it, he had no idea what. What were they trying to achieve? He had infiltrated the place to get answers and the only thing he had ended up with were more questions. If only he could have captured one of those samurais.

Which brought his train of thoughts to Anya. What was her role in all this? At the moment nothing seemed to make sense. The only thing he was certain of, was the fact that the beast he had killed wasn't the beast that was being summoned.

Which begged the question... what was?

"Good afternoon sir, how can I serve you today?" The barmaid greeted a new customer.

"A bottle of your best sake would be nice." The man drawled in a lazy voice. "This seat isn't taken is it?" He asked Naruto.

Naruto shrugged and the man took his seat.

"So what have you got there?" The man said trying to make a conversation.

"Ember's pride." Naruto said indicating the his cup of sake.

"Hmmm... Not bad, though I must say my tastes tend to lean towards Diamonds in the Rough."

"You have expensive tastes." Naruto said raising an eyebrow at his companion.

"Its something I have acquired over the years."

"Its good to see you Shika." Naruto finally said getting tired of the charade.

"Tch... Troublesome. Do you know how many excuses I had to make to Sakura to get here?" Shikamaru ranted. "Speaking of which is it safe to talk here?"

At this Naruto lifted his elbow from the table to reveal a privacy seal. While used only in close rooms, Naruto had been able to modify it enough to work in open spaces around a particular radius. So as long as no one got inside that radius all they would hear would be an angry buzzing noise if anyone tried to eavesdrop. Shikamaru nodded apparently satisfied.

"So how is she handling being Hokage?" Naruto asked.

"Surprisingly well, I must say. Konohamaru turned chunnin recently you know."

"Really? The kid would be great Shika, mark my words." Naruto's voice turned nostalgic.

"He misses you, you know. All of us do."

"Don't go all mushy on me now Shika. I asked you to get here for a reason."

Shikamaru understood a dismissal when he heard one. Even before Naruto faked his death he had deferred to Naruto when it came to decisions. Despite him being of higher rank. It was kind of a moot point however, as Naruto had never made it past the rank of genin. But Naruto always had the knack of pulling off the impossible.

War however has a way of changing people. It had changed him. It sure as hell had changed Naruto. Gone was the cheerful, boisterous kid and was replaced with a battle hardened warrior.

In a way Shikamaru could understand Naruto's need to get away. Their generation was born in relatively peaceful times but not Naruto. Even during the peace he was fighting a war. Fighting to get acknowledgement from people who hated and feared him.

Fighting to survive.

Fighting for fairness in an unfair world. Fighting for the bonds he had forged, fighting for the bonds others had broken.

So, it was natural when war eventually came to all of them... _Naruto thrived_.

He had finally found his place in the world. It was the battlefield.

Naruto was finally home. He had finally gotten the acknowledgement he had craved all his life.

Probably too much. He had gone from village pariah to savior and hero in a few short months. Shikamaru could see the effect it was having on him.

Just when the war had started going their way and it was all but over, Naruto faked his death in an all out death match against his ex-comrade, Sasuke Uchiha.

He still remembered the day Naruto had gone to face him, refusing to take anyone else. By then everyone knew better than to question him.

When Shikamaru had asked him what he was doing, Naruto had smiled for the first time in a long time. It was the smile of a man who had finally found peace. Then he had looked at him and said. "I am going to fulfill my promise Shika."

That was when Shikamaru had known that Naruto won't be coming back.

And he hadn't. Naruto had truly died that day. It was almost as if the entire purpose of his life was to fight that war and it was only fitting that his life ended with it.

Naruto had no business with peace.

His life was War.

That's why he couldn't come back to Konoha. He had no place there anymore.

Maybe that's what he was doing right now.

Looking for a new war.

Looking for... _home_.

He didn't know what Naruto had done in those 6 months, but now he looked more...together. He would call it peace, but that wouldn't be it. Naruto was as chaotic as the maelstorm he was named after.

He listened to what Naruto had to say in silence.

"So, this beast had no chakra you say?" Shikamaru tried to confirm.

"None at all."

Shikamaru closed his eyes and went deep in thought.

Naruto gazed at his friend. He felt a little guilty about not telling him everything. Partly because he didn't need to know everything and probably because he himself wasn't sure what this meant.

An old curse had re-surged again. It had done so in Rei. Oh the irony. Someone up there must be having quite a laugh at his expense right about now. He decided to keep it to himself for now.

If he told him about Rei, Shikamaru would have to tell the village about it. Naruto wouldn't put Shikamaru in that position where he would have to make a choice between trusting him and his own loyalty to Konoha.

No, that would be his burden to bear.

Naruto decided to leave at this point.

"Be careful Shika and prepare yourself. The storm might already be upon us."

A few seconds later Shikamaru too made his way out of the establishment, lighting a cigarette.

"Bastard left me with the bill."

* * *

Naruto walked into the inn The Blue Rose, Rei in tow. The place was loud and boisterous and Rei retreated closer to Naruto. Naruto felt he had walked inside a gas filled chamber, and all it would require was a match to set the whole place blaze.

Most of the men in the waiting area were either brutes or bounty hunters.. The unhealthy levels of testosterone and booze from the bar, Naruto knew it was only a matter of time, before the place erupted in a full-on bar fight.

Great just what he needed, especially with Rei in tow. But he didn't have a choice. He was following a lead. His inquiries about that symbol he had seen over that building had brought him here.

Apparently the Sun Kamon was the symbol of Masahiro Industries. They operated out of the Land Of Gold. His inquiries had told him that the company was owned by Hideki Masahiro. Apparently the Masahiros were samurais at some point, but now they had turned into businessmen. Textiles, transportation, import-export, construction, you name it and Masahiro was in it.

As far as leads went Naruto could have done worse.

The only problem was getting into the Land of Gold. It was governed by the samurai, who answered only to their Daimyo. He was told that someone here could get him in.

300 people were dead, kids & women among them and he didn't find a single body. Someone was responsible. He wanted to know who and more importantly why?

Approaching the bar where a man was busy serving the drinks.

"Hey there." Naruto greeted the barkeep.

"Ah! hello what can I get for you? Wine, sake?" The man said taking some time out for his new customer.

"Ah no thanks. I have my little sister with me and it wouldn't do for me to be a bad influence now would it?"

"I think that ship sailed the minute you walked in here with her my friend."

Naruto shrugged, knowing the man had a point. Rei had perched herself on top of a bar-stool, her feet swinging. Naruto couldn't help suppress a smile at this. It reminded him of the time he was travelling with Jiraiya.

"Well aren't you a cutie?" The man gushed on seeing Rei, before pouring her some juice. "Here, this one's on the house."

Rei happily slurped the drink after mumbling out a very quiet thank you. Naruto put his hand on her head and smiled for real. Sitting here she looked like a normal kid.

"Thank you for that." Naruto said.

"Don't mention it. I have two kids of my own."

"So, I was wondering, would it be possible to get a room for the night?" Naruto turned his attention back to the barkeeper.

"Yeah, just fill out the ledger." The barkeeper handed him a register and a pen. "So, what brings you here?"

"Well, I am hoping to get into the Land of Gold. Want to get a fresh start you see." Naruto said.

The barkeeper whistled at this.

"Do you have any idea how hard it is to get in there? The Daimyo rules the land with an iron fist. It is almost completely autonomous. If you try the usual channels it might take months just to get in. Then there is a probationary period. Trust me you would be better off, starting somewhere else." He said trying to dissuade Naruto.

"Well, if I can't get in through the usual channels. I will try the unusual ones."

The man raised an eyebrow at Naruto's words.

"I am Hideki. Toushiro Hideki." The man said offering his hand.

"Tenzo. Just Tenzo. Don't have a family name." Naruto shook the man's hand.

"Its a pleasure to make your acquaintance Tenzo."

"Likewise." Naruto said letting go of his hand.

At this point a disturbance was created at the end of the room, courtesy of two men getting involved in a fist-fight. Which soon snowballed into a full on brawl. Naruto sighed as he casually caught a stray beer bottle flying towards him.

**CRRAAAACCCCKKKKK!**

"Just what do you think you're doing here?" Came a loud female voice from the door as a wave of killing intent flooded the bar. Naruto was impressed. But he could see it was beginning to bother Rei. So he extended the calming influence of his chakra to her, causing her to visibly relax. Funnily enough Hideki wasn't bothered by it at all.

The girl's profile was dark against the door and she casually walked in.

Years from now, in his moments of nostalgia Naruto would look at this one as a turning point of sorts.

She was tall, only about half a head shorter than Naruto. Dressed in black leggings and sandals with a black sleeveless top exposing her midriff. Her hands were covered with black fingerless gloves, her hair tied in a ponytail. She walked with the casual grace and confidence of a panther, her piercing hazel eyes drinking the scene in.

The silence which had enveloped the bar was broken by a shriek of pain.

"Now now. Aren't you the naughty one." The girl was smirking while holding the hand of the man who was obviously trying to cop a feel. She increased the pressure a bit more causing the guy whimper in pain. She brought her face closer to his and pushed her other hand into the back pocket of the man, causing a few of the men to get nose bleeds.

Smirking she took out a wallet. "You don't mind if I hold onto this do you?" The man managed to shake his head still in excruciating pain. "You're sweet." She let go of the guy after planting a kiss on his cheek.

Her last action finally broke the ice and the bar went back to its original state, but without the fighting.

"Hey Hideki-jii san. How about a pint of beer for your favorite customer?" She shouted on reaching the bar and depositing the entire amount she had managed to acquire from the man who had tried to grope her. "This should cover the damages."

Hideki just laughed and poured her one. "Akira-chan its been a while."

Akira finished half of the pint in one go. "That hit the spot." She wiped the froth from her mouth. "Well, you know its been busy days. There had been a jail-break and so there were plenty of bounties floating around. I just did my part like a conscientious bounty-hunter should."

"And I am absolutely sure you had nothing to do with the break-out." Hideki said a knowing smile playing on his lips.

"What can I say? Some times you have to create your own jobs." She gave a roguish wink to the bartender.

Naruto looked on with bemusement at the girl. Finally deciding he walked up to her. The girl reacted fast and within a blink of an eye Naruto found a knife placed against his throat.

"Do you have a death wish kid?"

Naruto brushed off the comment about the kid, considering she didn't look any older than him.

"Is this how you treat every guy who wants to talk to you?" Naruto said nonchalantly. His hands in his pocket and his stance casual.

"You should see what I do to the guys who ask me for a dance." The girl smiled pushing up the blade a little more stopping short of drawing blood. "Hey Ji-san who is this joker?"

"Ah Tenzo, meet Akira." Hideki gave a brief introduction. "Play nice Akira he is a paying customer."

Akira removed the blade from Naruto's throat and raised an eyebrow at his lack of reaction.

"You're either very brave or very stupid if you approached me like that especially after what I did to the other guy." She finished the rest of her drink in one gulp. "And who is this kid?" She said staring pointedly at Rei who was now gaping at her.

"That's my sister." Naruto began.

"And you brought her here? i am liking you less and less."

Naruto was at the end of his patience. This girl was really beginning to get on his nerves.

"I need safe passage into the Land of Gold." Naruto decided to go straight to the point.

"File an application to the Secretary to the Daimyo." She shrugged about to retire for the night.

"I heard you can get people in without having to go through the usual channels."

"You heard wrong." Akira was about to get up when Naruto grabbed a hold of her arm. "Either you let go of my arm or I will remove it for you." She said in a low deadly tone.

"Look I can pay. I have come a long way for this. I can really use the help." Naruto managed in his best pleading note.

"Give the kid a break Akira." Hideki cut in. "He looks like he can use it."

Akira sighed. "Fine old man. For you." Turning to Naruto she said. "See me first thing tomorrow at the cross-road and I will see what I can do."

"Thank you." Naruto said gratefully to Hideki.

"Don't worry about it kid. You like like a good boy. Now take care of your sister and here are the keys to your room."

When Naruto looked at Rei, he could see her looking at Akira's retreating figure with something akin to admiration. Great just what he needed. A questionable female idol.

* * *

Anya was on her knees giving her report to her liege. Her head bowed to the floor.

"So this man, took out two highly trained samurai without drawing a weapon and not only that he also destroyed the Akuma." Her liege spoke in a cold detached tone.

"Yes, my lord."

"Do you have anything else to add?"

Anya hesitated before saying. "He may have been a shinobi."

A pin-drop silence greeted this statement.

"Is that all?"

"Yes my lord."

"Fine you're dismissed."

Anya got to her feet and bowed once more before retreating to the shadows of the hall.

"Do you think she was right?" His retainer questioned him.

"Most probably yes. Mind you the reason the summoning failed could have been because of outside interference. So, there may have been more than one of them."

"So what do we do now?"

"Get me the Uchiha."

**Aaaannnd Done. So I have introduced a new character. She does seem kinda important if you ask me.**


	7. The Forest Of Girias

**The Forest Of Girias.**

Naruto was sitting in the crossroads as he had been told. The sun had risen almost overhead. The bitch! He was sure she was doing this on purpose. A few yards away Rei was kicking at the dust in childish impatience. Naruto smirked as he saw the little girl. To see her acting like a child, especially after the trauma she went through.

To say it didn't bother him would be an understatement. It was due to his carelessness after all that resulted in what happened. He had lost sight of his goal. But like all seasoned soldiers he didn't dwell on it. He had seen it happen. The guilt of watching friend's and family die often drove people to insanity. It didn't get better when you know it was in your power to change things.

But that's why he couldn't let it bring him down. Even with his failure he had achieved something. He had stopped whatever they were summoning. And maybe...just maybe he may have bought some time for him to find out what exactly was going on. He had warned Shikamaru and he would be keeping his eyes open for anything out of the ordinary.

If anyone can sniff a needle out of that haystack it would be Shikamaru.

He sighed as he waited for his guide to show up. This really was getting ridiculous. Even Kakashi was never more than three hours late. Thankfully during his travels and the war itself had given him the patience of a turtle.

"Oh good you guys are here." He was greeted. Turning to the source of the voice he saw the profile of their guide. Today she was dressed in a purple sleeveless top. The rest of her attire remained the same, except she seemed to have added a belt as an accessory a bag slung over her shoulder.

"You're late." Came the dry morose voice of his charge, staring their guide with a piercing gaze.

"What do you know, the kitten has claws." Akira smirked at the child and her anger. "Have you considered the fact that maybe you guys are early?"

"You told us to meet you first thing in the morning." Naruto grumbled irritatedly.

"I said first thing tomorrow, big difference. That just happens to be now for me. I didn't tell you to wait for me from the crack of dawn." She smiled salaciously at the expression on Naruto's face. "You weren't here from dawn were you?"

Naruto face-palmed. Of course she had to be a smart mouth. With her attitude she reminded him of Anko. God that woman was annoying. She was one hell of a kunoichi though.

"Fine, whatever you're here, let's get this over with." Naruto huffed, knowing there was no way he could win this argument.

Akira dropped her bag, causing a minor earthquake. Naruto raised his eyebrows a bit. That bag looked heavy, and she was carrying it like it weighed as much as a feather, confirming what Naruto had deduced about her. She was strong. When she spoke next all playfulness from her voice was gone. All that remained was a woman who demanded total compliance.

"Okay before we move. Ground rules. You will stay within five yards of me at all time. You leave my sight and I wouldn't be responsible for your fates. We won't be taking the main road, as you lack the proper documents to enter legally but travelling through the forest of Girias, which is a haven for bandits." She plopped down on the ground still talking. "The journey will take us seven days by foot, so I hope you are prepared to live off the forest, cause that's what we are going to do. Any questions?"

Naruto held his silence.

"Good, lets move."

* * *

It had been 4 hours since they started moving. The forest was plunged in darkness. Part of the reason was evening had set in, the other part was the density of the forest. Frankly speaking it reminded Naruto of the Forest of Death, except they had yet to run into any predators. Naruto had to admit Akira knew what she was doing.

"We would have covered more distance if you two weren't such slowpokes." Akira complained trying to light up some firewood.

"We would have covered more distance if someone had gotten an earlier start to the day." Naruto shot back.

"Touche."

Naruto breathed deeply trying to control his temper. He thought he had learnt how to control his temper, but something about this woman just pressed all his buttons.

Naruto got some fish from the nearby stream and started to roast them over the fire Akira had started.

"I will take first watch." Naruto said in the middle of dinner.

"And what will you do if something goes wrong baby-face?" Akira mocked.

"I don't know. Scream I guess." Naruto shrugged ignoring the baby-face barb.

Akira stared at him for a moment, before taking out her sleeping bag and getting in. "Don't fall asleep."

Rei was staring at the place where Akira was with something resembling bewilderment on her face.

Naruto chuckled and ruffled Rei's hair. "Yeah, she is infuriating. So why don't you go get some sleep kiddo. You can have the last shift."

Rei merely pouted at Naruto's actions but nodded and got into a sleeping bag of her own. Naruto smirked at the girl's actions before settling himself down on an elevated platform and begin his watch.

* * *

"You see those mushrooms. The red ones with the golden spots on it. Yeah always avoid those." Akira kept a running commentary on edible stuff which can be found in the forest, for the benefit of her 'clients'. "Those are easy enough to identify... Its the brown ones you should be wary of."

"In which case you have to check the rings underneath them." Naruto concluded Akira's explanation.

"Well well, someone knows their mushrooms." Akira applauded mockingly.

Naruto rolled his eyes.

Rei had been hanging on to her every word Akira had been saying.

"Pop quiz. Can we eat this?" She plucked a brown mushroom from the forest floor and offered it to Rei. Rei gazed at it for a minute before grabbing it from her and popping it into her mouth.

"Good thing she isn't related to you Tenzo." Akira commented.

"What makes you say that?"

"Well she is smart."

"You know your barbs at me are really getting annoying."

"I call it like I see it, kid."

They had been walking for three days now. Akira was getting a little edgy lately and Naruto knew cause she was channeling her unease by trying to get a rise out of Naruto, who so far hadn't complied.

His suspicions were confirmed when she paused and turned to them.

"Okay the part of these forests are a stronghold of bandits. This might get rough, so I want you to be extremely quiet and keep dialogue to a minimum." Akira had traversed these lands before. She wasn't worried about herself, she could take them on anytime, the problem were her charges. She wasn't sure she could while protecting them.

Still she had taken the job and now it was her responsibility. She would protect them.

She reached into her belt and drew a knife and offered it to Naruto, who took it without protest.

"Don't cut yourself kid." She said, her voice grim, Naruto nodded, understanding the gravity of the situation. Rei meanwhile drew closer to Naruto.

It was three hours later that Naruto spied their presence. He could feel 15 of them, surrounding them. They were preparing an ambush it was obvious. But something was wrong with this picture. Bandits never acted this way. Something about these guys. It was too well planned. Possibly someone with military training was behind this.

And they were being pegged as a threat. That complicated matters. Not by much, but it did. He was really hoping he wouldn't have to explain his combat competence. Well he will cross that bridge when he got to it. Right now he would have to keep close to Rei and protect her.

After about 15 minutes more Akira raised her hand inaudibly asking them to stop. They had reached a clearing. Bending down she spied a thread, no a wire, extending between two trees.

A trap.

No sooner had she come to this conclusion, she was forced to dodge projectiles aimed at her head. Rolling away she looked for her charges and was relieved to see Tenzo had taken cover behind a tree along with Rei.

Running wouldn't help. They obviously had the place surrounded. Well she would have to fight her way out.

Just the way she like it.

"Stay their and don't move." Akira ordered the boy and was relieved to see when he just nodded once in understanding.

The clearing was now teeming with bandits armed with blades and axes. Weaving between them she used an open palm and drove it into the nose of the first bandit, immediately taking him out of the fight.

Dodging a slash to her head she dropped down to sweep the legs of her next opponent, back flipping out of the way of slash while at the same time driving her foot into the face of the offender pushing him into the trap Akira had discovered earlier, which left him hanging upside down. However in the meantime one of the bandits had managed to close the distance and was going for a beheading strike. Knowing she couldn't dodge this one, she jumped forward wrapping an arm around her adversary's neck letting her and his momentum work for her as she twisted his neck, breaking it.

That was when she saw one of the bandits approaching her charges. Without hesitation she reached into her belt and pulled out a whip and cracked it towards him catching him by the throat. One mighty pull had the bandit floored. Movement to her left forced her to reach for her second whip. Two of the bandits were trying to flank her. Turning her attention to them she let her whip fly, catching them both in the face with one strike causing them to collapse on the ground groaning in pain.

Twisting her form she cracked both of her whips and knocked some projectiles out of air which were fired at her.

"Come on." She shouted daring them to attack. There were still three bandits in the clearing who were now hesitating having seen her fight. Finally they decided to retreat. She held her stance for several seconds making sure they weren't coming before finally relaxing her guard. She turn to her charges only to see Tenzo flinging his knife in her direction.

* * *

Well looked like Naruto would be able to keep his cover after all. Akira was good. Really good. She dispatched the armed bandits with ease without even resorting to a weapon herself. Only when one of the bandits approached them did she bring out her weapons.

Whips, with a weighted ball at their end. She managed to snag the bandit by the neck and brought two others down. She even managed to block projectiles with them, showing her mastery over her weapons which obviously were designed for offence.

"Come on." She challenged them taking her stance. It didn't take long for the remaining bandits to start retreating, seeing her prowess. Akira visibly relaxed and Naruto began cursing inwardly. That's what they were waiting for. One of them had stayed behind. The one who was flinging those projectiles, waiting for exactly this moment.

Running out knowing he didn't have much time, he flung his knife towards the last hidden bandit.

Akira froze. A dull thud of a body hitting the forest floor behind her alerted her to the last fatality in this battle.

"Whew that was close." Naruto exclaimed.

"How did you do that?" Akira asked once she regained her composure.

"Do what?" He asked puzzled.

"You nailed a target at 15 meters with knife." She deadpanned.

"Oh well adrenalin I guess." Naruto shrugged. "What you did was way more impressive. Man, I have never seen anyone move like that." He tried to bring the conversation back to her. Judging by her face she wasn't buying it.

Damn and here he was hoping to keep his cover longer. But he couldn't allow her to die either. She was after all risking her life for total strangers. But surprisingly Akira didn't push him on it and merely went to check the bodies she had dropped. Pausing to plunge a knife into the throat of the hanging bandit ignoring his protests.

None of them looked like they have significant bounties. Most of them were unknown foot soldiers without any notoriety. Damn and she was really hoping to turn this into a pay-day.

She saw the boy observe her from the corner of her eye. He didn't look like a fighter. When she had met him a few days back she had thought him to be one of those opportunist perverts who hung around bars trying to pick up women. Then she remembered he hadn't even flinched when she had placed a knife to his throat. At that time she had assumed that he was just too stupid to be scared or was one of those who enjoyed that sort of a thing.

She had been wrong about that. As he was traveling with a pre-teen girl, who he claimed was his sister, even though they looked nothing alike. Then he said he wanted to hire her services to get into the Land of Gold. She only agreed because Hideki had insisted on his behalf.

She could never say no to him.

Now her brain was putting together everything she had gathered about him over the last few days. He knew how to survive in the wild that was obvious, considering his foraging skills. He never seemed to tire either.

Then there was the kill he just scored. The knife she had given him was meant for close combat. It wasn't balanced enough to throw and hit targets with any degree of accuracy. But he had managed it.

Thinking about it why did he want to go to the Land of Gold anyway? It was a militaristic regime where the Daimyo ruled with an iron fist. What reason could he have to go there?

Shaking her head to banish her thoughts she approached the man he had managed to drop with the knife. Well well what do you know Kenta Murusame. Turns out there was someone of worth here after all.

He had a bounty on his head. She could use this. Bringing out a larger blade from her backpack she severed the head with one strike.

"Could you not do that here?" Came the reproachful tone of her companion.

"What no stomach to handle it?" She mocked, turning to him.

"I was talking about Rei." He glared at her.

Interesting, he didn't seem bothered by the decapitated head and was only concerned about the girl who was now looking extremely pale.

"Sorry." She brought out a sealing scroll and applied some chakra to seal the head in it. "There all done."

"So can we start moving now?"

* * *

In a clearing not far away the remaining bandits were reporting to their leader.

"You lost 12 men to her? Not to mention Kenta." The leader Hiroshi was suppressing his anger. If he let it go, he just might end up killing the idiots in front of him. Something he couldn't afford.

"She was a bounty-hunter and a very skilled one at that and she had a companion with her. It was he who got Kenta."

"So what would you have us do Hiroshi?" One of his men asked him.

Hiroshi remained silent for a while. This couldn't be allowed. His men had been defeated in their home-turf. He would have to nip this in the bud.

"Prepare the men." He said, his voice carrying an air of finality. "We are going hunting."


	8. The Bandits of Girias

**Hey guys I am back from the temporary hiatus. Hope you guys missed me. But before I proceed I will be addressing some of the concerns I have been receiving regarding this tale. This is a post-series Naruto and yes Naruto is powerful, but don't expect him to run around throwing jutsus. That doesn't mean he wouldn't mind you. But those will be during the boss-fights. He will be more behind the scenes kind of guy. My fights won't be resembling DBZ either and will rely more on strategy, deception and skill than outright power. Because I feel those require more imagination and are more fun to read and write. And again received a few complaints about Sakura being Hokage. I have given my reasons. And even the most hardcore critic will have to admit they are good reasons. I won't be bashing any character either.**

**Another thing I would like to add is that my world would be more realistic than the fairy tale Kishimoto is busy cooking up so I may take a few liberties while trying to stay as faithful to the canon as I can.**

**Well for further queries drop a line or PM me.**

**The Bandits of Girias**

"Flank it from the side and don't make a noise." Akira instructed her wards while she crept towards her target. Their target was barely 15 yards away from them in the process of quenching its thirst.

Naruto was approaching it from the sides while Akira entered the blind-spot, quietly slapping an arrow in her crossbow and quietly closing the distance.

When he was less than 10 yards from the target, Naruto made his move. The target obviously startled broke into a run straight towards Akira.

"Well that takes care of the next few meals." Akira commented dryly, while walking up to the buck they had just hunted. Nonchalantly pulling out the arrow from its head and placing it back casually along with the rest of her arrows.

This reminded him of his early days as a genin when he was participating in all those capture Tora missions. God he hated that mission and that cat. But despite everything overtime that became one of his most treasured memories. That was the time when everything was simple.

He was an orange-wearing idiot wanting to be Hokage, Sasuke was the emo-bastard doing his best to ignore them, Sakura was the annoying fan-girl fishing for dates from the handsome Uchiha and Kakashi was the porn-reading pervert who was atleast a couple of hours late to wherever he needed to be.

Yeah… Nostalgia is ironic.

It was their third day in the forest and two days since the bandits had attacked. They made slow but steady progress under the guidance of Akira.

A part of Naruto still wanted to just grab Rei and zip through the forest, but he suppressed those impulses.

Now wasn't the time to be blowing his cover. He was in enough hot water as it is with his last stunt. His kill had made Akira suspicious and she would be expecting more such feats now and thing was Naruto wasn't sure he could keep up his charade for long if they ran into another ambush.

Cause if he had to choose between Rei's safety and his self-imposed mission.

Well he will cross that bridge when he got to it.

He still wasn't sure what he would do with her. Being an ostracized orphan pariah himself and lack of any parental figure growing up would do that to you.

She needed someone who could take care of her. There was a time when Naruto would have considered handing her over to an orphanage. While not the best solution at least she would have a chance. A better chance than travelling with him. A washed out shinobi who was still looking for his place in the world.

Looking at her now though he was sure that she had lost her chance at a childhood. She had already been through and seen things no child should have to.

So for better or for worse she was stuck with him.

Things could have been worse.

Then his eyes fell on Akira who was in the process of skinning a deer they had just hunted.

"Stop being so squeamish girl and make yourself useful." Akira said while handing Rei a small knife who accepted it after some initial hesitation.

Yeah... Things could definitely have been worse. Not by much... but they could have been worse.

Then his eyes fell on Akira who was in the process of skinning a deer they had just hunted.

"Stop being so squeamish girl and make yourself useful." Akira said while handing Rei a small knife who accepted it after some initial hesitation.

Yeah... Things could definitely have been worse. Not by much... but they could have been worse. Sighing Naruto approached Rei who obviously seemed to be struggling with her assigned task, not having done anything like this before.

"Hold it like this." He adjusted Rei's grip on the knife, keeping up a string of instructions, he showed her how to clean the meat and the process of skinning. Rei grateful for the attention nodded her head eagerly and did as told.

Naruto smiled at her ruffling her hair before walking up to Akira who was now in the process of building up a fire.

"How much longer is it going to take us to get to the Land of Gold?" Naruto inquired.

"We should be out of the forest in another couple of days." Rei replied. "After that its a two-day walk to the the city."

"Are we expected to run into more troubles?" Naruto couldn't help asking.

"Definitely."

"You don't seem awfully worried about it."

"Worrying is a waste of time." Akira stoked the fire, trying to get it to burn hot enough to begin cooking. "If I was worried about the troubles I wouldn't have chosen this life."

Naruto could respect that. They spent the next hour and a half roasting the buck over the fire, in a spit Naruto devised out of some wires and tree branches.

"You know you're not half as pansy as you look." Akira said while feasting on the meat.

"Thanks... I guess." Naruto said not sure if he should be offended or not. While it was the words did seem offensive, the tone behind them almost seemed... complimentary. What the hell since she was being so nice, maybe it wouldn't hurt to be nice back.

"You're not as abrasive as you make yourself out to be either you know."

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Akira's eyes flashed dangerously.

There went that idea.

"Nothing." Naruto decided to hold his tongue.

The glare soon turned into a smirk. "Not too smooth with the ladies are you?"

Naruto almost said that he didn't see any in the vicinity, but that was a sure invitation for a broken jaw so instead he said "No. I guess I am not."

Akira scoffed, "Keep that up and you will be virgin till 30."

Naruto bit his lip at the retort threatening to escape his lips. Man self control was becoming a habit. And he wasn't quite sure if he liked it.

Used to be so simple in the good old days, when he didn't have to worry about offending people as most of them already assumed he was an idiot. Even now he couldn't believe the amount of crap he got away with.

Not with Sakura though.

A smile broke over his face when he thought about his crush and first love. He knew she would be a great Hokage. She had good people around her too. He worried about her at times. But he knew she would do just fine.

Akira studied Tenzo while in the middle of her meal. He had finished his and was now relaxing with his back against a tree, his blue eyes holding a faraway look as if reminiscing old times. A look she had seen on the faces of veteran samurais who had lived through wars.

Funny as he didn't look old enough to be reminiscing at all. The blonde boy was an enigma. Even excluding his reasons for getting to the Land of Gold aside, he was definitely the strange. He didn't complain like some of the others she had escorted and kept pace with her quite well.

She had set what she had assumed was a brisk pace just to see how far could he be pushed. So far she had been calling all of their breaks.

She had to admit he was tougher than he looked. Though that might not help him later. An attack was coming. The bandits would strike again. It was only a matter of time and she wasn't sure if her skills would keep them alive.

It was just their luck to have run into them. To make matters worse they had escaped. And now they will be baying for blood.

Yeah talk about rotten luck. But then that's how life worked anyway. All she could do was just wait for the inevitable and do her best.

* * *

"The ambush is in place sir." Hiroshi was told by his subordinates.

Hiroshi nodded once acknowledging him. "I want the bitch alive." She had killed 12 of his men after all. That demanded some sort of retribution.

"Yes, sir."

* * *

Naruto sighed in faint annoyance. They had reached another clearing not different from the last senses could pick up 8 chakra signatures. Which was a little strange considering 12 hadn't sufficed last time. Extending his senses a little further he made out 8 more.

Hmmm... what were they up to?

Seeing Akira tense up and saw her fingers impatiently twitching towards those deadly whips of hers, he could tell despite she expected an attack here. He pulled up a little closer to Rei. The girl too somehow seemed to have picked up on the unease of her adult companions and had turned even more somber than usual.

And here it comes. Naruto thought to himself grimly.

These guys don't learn. Akira brought out her whips again, cracking them once as the bandits shouting battle cries rushed into the clearing. It was suspiciously similar to the first ambush, except no one seemed to be firing arrows at them. Even the bandits seemed to be fighting her more carefully this time around, keeping their distance from her whips while trying to lead her away from the clearing.

These were definitely more skilled than the last batch that had attacked them. Well if they won't come to her she would go to them. Flipping on her feet she mad a rush towards one. She smirked as the other closed the distance to help their comrade. Lashing out with her whips she caught two of them around the neck smashing their heads together simultaneously hitting the third with a kick to his jaw. The fourth one however managed to blow some sort of powder on her face.

Coughing and spluttering she tried to get some distance from her opponent, but could already sense it was futile. Her vision was turning blurry and her grip on the whips was weakening.

She barely manged to duck underneath the club aimed at her head, though it was probably because her legs had decided to fold at the same time. Even going down she managed an open palm strike at the gut of the offender and had the satisfaction of seeing him gasping for breath as she finally passed into oblivion.

* * *

It was just as Naruto had suspected. This attack was designed to capture rather than kill. Well capture Akira anyway. He and Rei he suspected were expendable. And he was really hoping he wouldn't have to fight. Well at least her attention was occupied by her own opponents which worked in his favor.

Maybe he could make this work after all.

They were surrounded by four bandits 2 of them brandishing knives and the other 2 short swords. They obviously assumed he was the lesser threat.

The poor bastards.

"Follow the path at the end of this clearing and wait for us. I will hold them back." He told Rei. She looked like she wanted to argue, but the glare Naruto fixed her with brook no argument. So she just nodded and ran.

"Well look who decided to play hero." One of the bandits leered at him. "Not that its going to help you much. She will be captured and who knows she might fetch a pretty price at the slave market. The young ones fetch a lot."

"Yeah well too bad you won't be enjoying the spoils." Naruto retorted before blurring out of sight. A second later the four bandits were writhing on the ground clutching their throats as they bled out.

Just then his eyes fell on Akira as she collapsed and the men moved to capture her. He was impressed the way she tried to continue her fight despite the direness of her situation. But now he was faced with a dilemma.

Save her and risk blowing his cover or leave her to her fate and go on his own merry way.

Or he could save Akira and protect his cover and do some good at the same time.

Yeah he like that plan. He molded his chakra to perform two jutsus simultaneously.

This could actually be fun.

* * *

Akira groaned as she woke up groggily, not quite aware where she was.

"Oh go...d you're ..ke. Hurry up we ...nzo." Came the voice of what she guessed was a child.

Damn brat interrupting her nap.

The next thing she knew she was choking and sputtering as she got a really rude awakening, in the form of the brat splashing her face with water.

Her hand shot out as she grabbed the offender by her throat.

"What's the big idea brat?" She snarled viciously. Her eyes narrowed as she studied the kid who had was now turning an unhealthy shade of blue. She looked familiar.

Kami, she was choking Rei.

And just like that it all came rushing back to her. The ambush. The fight. How she was knocked out with some sort of a powder.

"C...an't bre...athe" Rei rasped as her fingers clawed Akira's to gain some respite.

Akira hastily let the girl go, leaving the girl coughing and spluttering on the ground.

Wait a minute something was wrong here. Why wasn't she dead or worse? And where the hell was Tenzo? Did he get killed?

"We have to save him?" Rei pleaded as soon as she regained her breath.

Akira silently stared at the gasping girl as she tried to digest her situation.

* * *

Sasuke made his way inside through the crowded bazaar. Dressed in a black hooded cloak and gray pants with sandals he looked like just another nomad who frequented the city during this time of the year.

He had been summoned by the head of the organization. He guessed it had something to do with the last debacle in the settlement near the Land of Iron.

He had little interest in the working of the organization, but this incident was no different.

But maybe... just maybe.

He made his way to an old decrepit building. He barely stopped himself from rolling his eyes. These people prided themselves on their secrecy, but it wouldn't take even a second rate shinobi more than a second glance to know something was off.

No wonder their plans went awry.

Knocking the door in a pattern he was taught, he stepped back. The door opened leading him to a corridor leading to another door, marked with multiple seals.

Biting his thumb to draw some blood he channeled some chakra to his fingertips and swiped it across the seal. This time instead of opening the gate remained stationary, however the platform he was standing on began to descend. soon leading him to an oval amphitheater. The place was huge considering it housed fewer people than two dozen.

"Welcome to the sanctum Uchiha Sasuke."

Sasuke nodded once in acknowledgement.

"As you probably know we have run into some difficulties with our plans." The leader folded his arms. "And we suspect shinobi involvement."

"Am I a suspect?" Sasuke said languidly.

"Well you are a shinobi." The man sitting to the right of the leader retorted. Sasuke narrowed his eyes. Kaito Satoshi was a samurai who belonged to the old school of thinking despite his youth. He had an inherent hatred for shinobi. Granted the Samurais were hardwired to do that. There always had been bad blood amongst the shinobi and the samurai, going back to a feud which outdated the birth of the elemental nations by a few centuries.

But Kaito by far was the most vocal of them.

The leader however held his hands up in a placating gesture.

"No you're not a suspect. We were however hoping you would have some answers."

"I am sorry but I don't."

"**Samurai Art: Flashing Blade.**" Kaito shouted as he disappeared and reappeared in front of Sasuke slashing along his torso, his eyes widening in surprise.

"If you don't have answers for us, we have no use for you." Kaito sheathed his blade when he noticed the shower of blood he was expecting was missing.

"Just because I don't have the answers doesn't mean I can't find them." Came Sasuke's sardonic voice from behind him.

Kaito's eye twitched. When did he cast that genjutsu. He had avoided eye contact. Turning around to face him, he gritted his teeth in rage, seeing his calm visage. His stance was relaxed and his face calm.

He didn't even consider Kaito a threat. His eyes held nothing. No rage, no curiosity, not even contempt. He held no acknowledgement for him.

Kaito felt like an ant facing an elephant.

His arm again twitched towards his blade.

"That's enough." The leader shouted stopping Kaito in his tracks. "I apologize for Kaito's rash actions."

"No harm done." Sasuke said nonchalantly. "Like I said I can find your answers for you, it may require me to take a trip."

"A trip to where?" The leader asked intrigued.

"The home of the shinobis." Sasuke said. "The Elemental Nations."

**And that's a wrap folks. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. In case you're wondering what Naruto did. I will drop a hint. The Academy three. Don't forget to leave a review. Suggestions are welcome too. **

**Until next time**


	9. Rescue Mission

**Rescue Mission**

**Okay been a while since I have updated this one. But compared to the response my other stories have gotten, this one's has been lukewarm at best. But I don't abandon my stories, so here it is. But don't expect rapid updates either, as I update my stories depending on their popularity.**

**But enough of that. Enjoy.**

Akira rubbed her eyes trying to fight the grogginess. Her head was still aching from inhaling whatever they had blown over her face.

She couldn't help but curse herself over her stupidity and carelessness. They should never had gotten the drop on her. She had underestimated her opponents and Tenzo was the one who ended up paying for it. A pang of guilt overcame her as she thought about it. Pushing it down with a gulp of water.

Though one thing rankled her. Why was she alive? They hadn't even bothered to capture her. Which she suspected was their intention. So that begged the question, why did they take Tenzo?

He wasn't dead... yet, which wasn't necessarily a good thing.

She kept swallowing more water to flush out the remains of the poison from her system. It would be another couple of hours before she regained full mobility. Well what's done is done. Now she had to think about what to do next.

Which brought her to the kid. Who was now looking at her eyes filled with worry and concern. Funny she hardly showed any fear. She was afraid, yes. But it was for her companion. Though all of it felt extremely restrained.

Well this wasn't going to be easy.

"Okay kid its time we got out of here." She said addressing the girl.

"What?" Rei looked like she couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"Yes, before they decide to come back, we have to get out of here." She had underestimated them once. She wasn't going to make the same mistake again, not when she had a little girl with her.

"What about Tenzo?" Rei asked in a quiet voice.

"If we move fast we might be able to bring help for him." Akira reasoned, though she didn't believe they would get here in time to save him even if by some miracle they managed to get help.

"It will be too late by then." Apparently neither did Rei.

"Look I can understand how you feel. But there is nothing we can do." Akira reasoned. She was a little flustered by the girl's reaction. She had spoken more in the last three minutes than she had spoken in the last three days.

"So you aren't going to help him?"

"Sorry kid but I can't." Akira shook her head regrettably.

"I understand." Rei bowed her head once. Akira sighed in relief. "Then I suppose this is where we part ways,"

Akira was all for leaving the forest, when Rei's last words gave her a pause.

"I am not quite sure if I heard right, but for a second I was sure you just said, you wanted to part ways."

"Yes, I can't leave this place without him."

"Fine but don't expect me to follow you." Akira spoke hoping to call her bluff.

"I don't." Rei remained unrelenting. "Thank you for guiding us so far."

"Damn it kid! Do you have any idea what they do to women and kids?" Akira said in exasperation.

"I do."

"And you want to go after him anyway?" Akira was beginning to consider just knocking her out and dragging her out of this place. "What is that going to achieve? You're gonna get yourself killed, and that's if you're lucky, cause trust me you wouldn't want to be alive for what they will do to you."

"I can't leave him behind." Rei said resolutely.

"And why not?" Akira was beginning to lose her patience now. Why was the girl being so stubborn? "I don't claim to know Tenzo, but do you think this is what he would want?"

"No one is holding you back." Rei answered.

"Damn it kid why are you doing this?"

"Because he didn't leave me behind." Rei said raising her voice a bit.

Akira stared at the little girl in front of her. Defiant and proud as any samurai she had known in her life. A part of her felt like laughing at the irony of the situation. A part of her wanted to curse the very fates for making her do this.

Tightening her gloves and strapping her whips a bit tighter around her waist and began walking, leaving Rei behind.

"I am not waiting for you kid." She called out without looking back.

"I told you..." Rei began.

"Relax, we are going to save your friend." She interrupted the girl a little irritated.

Rei gaped. For a moment she couldn't believe what she just heard.

"I meant it kid." Akira said without slowing her pace. "I will leave you behind."

A grin broke over her face. The first smile in a long time. She had help. She didn't have to do this alone as she rushed to catch up to Akira.

"Thank you." She murmured.

"Don't thank me yet kid. For all I know we are walking to our graves." Akira said grimly. "You are prepared to die I hope, because there is no turning back now."

Rei nodded, her face equally grim causing Akira to smirk. The kid did know what she was getting herself into. Good.

* * *

Naruto allowed himself to dragged along the ground. Two of the bandits held him by the forearms as they continued on their way.

Having Sakura as a teammate had enhanced his own knowledge of drugs, and the one they had used on Akira was a paralyzing agent administered bandit camp was a few miles of where they had been.

A clearing with an outcropping of rocks and grass. Several tents set up around the place served as sleeping retreats of the bandits.

At a guess estimate, the place harbored about 50 bandits. Though with the casualties in the last few days the numbers had to have dwindled to thirties.

He had held on to Akira's henge for now. Just letting the situation play out, till he decided on a course of action. He was thrown inside a tent facedown.

Groaning painfully to make a show of it he turned on his back. Soon another set of footsteps approached the tent Throwing three more girls in.

Their dresses were in tatters and didn't leave a lot to imagination why they were here captured. Naruto fought down the revulsion he felt.

As a shinobi this was nothing new for him, but he still had to work to curb his anger. The girls were quietly sobbing at their situation.

But before he could say something to reassure them one of the bandits entered the room, grabbing him by the hair the man dragged him out of the tent.

A cheer rose through the camp at the sight of one of their companion dragging a woman by her hair to their leader.

"Look at the bitch."

"You are in for a long night, honey. Hope you are prepared."

He was taunted all the way while he was dragged to another tent, who he assumed was of the leader's of the bandit.

He made a show of a feeble struggle against the man holding her, receiving a back-handed slap for his troubles.

"None of that now, can't have you wasting your energy before you meet the boss." The bandit hissed in his ear, before shoving him into the tent, reintroducing him to the floor.

Seriously they needed to stop doing that. It wasn't funny.

"So you're the girl who gave my men so much trouble." Came the deep gravelly voice of the boss.

Hiding a smirk Naruto pushed himself on his knees to see the man. He was powerfully built. Sitting shirtless, exposing his hairy chest and wearing tan pants, lounging on a bed of sorts, as he gazed at him.

"You can say that." He replied. "Though if you ask me they had it coming."

"Well then you know what's coming for you." Hiroshi smirked expecting to see a flash of fear and hopelessness in the girl's eyes that he had come to expect from his victims.

Boy was he surprised.

"Yeah yeah, when it comes to you bandits, I must say you have the imagination range of a teaspoon," The girl now gave a genuine smirk from beyond the veil of her cascading hair. He had to admit, she was a rare jewel.

She was beautiful and feisty. Hiroshi liked feisty. They were all the more fun to break.

"I know your type you know." He said. "Your smart mouth just means you have resigned yourself to your fate and you know no amount of begging and pleading will get you out, so you run your mouth off, pretending to be fearless."

"Or maybe there is actually nothing to be afraid of." The girl replied calmly, still showing no signs of fear or intimidation. But then she was a fighter. Considering what she had done to his men.

Even then Hiroshi couldn't help but look at her incredulously. Before breaking into a laughing fit great enough to shake the entire camp.

"You really are good." He said once he recovered. "Look around you, you're far away from home girl. No one is coming to save you. And yet here you are, pretending nothing is wrong and that everything is going to be alright."

"I am glad you find me amusing." The girl said her tone drier than a desert in summer. "But what makes you think I need saving"

"You know what? I have decided I will keep you." The bandit leader said. It was obvious words weren't going to break her. But that's what would make it better. "The men could use a change too. The whimpering and simpering gets old after a while."

"Can I know your name?" The girl asked genuine curiosity in her tone.

"So, that you know what you would be screaming when I violate you?" Hiroshi really had to admire the girl's spunk

"No, no. I assure you that's not the reason." She told him.

"Then why?" Hiroshi was curious himself now.

"So that I know whose soul to pray for when I send it to the shinigami."

The tone of that voice sent chills down Hiroshi's spine. It wasn't a taunt. It was a declaration of someone who knew exactly what was going to happen.

A scream pierced the silence of the night, warning Hiroshi of the things to come. In a growing panic, he exited the tent, to see his camp set ablaze.

As soon as the man exited the tent, Naruto snapped his bonds and broke out of the henge and silently exited the tent. He could feel two familiar chakra signatures approaching the camp.

Rei and Akira. That was an interesting development. He had known it was a good idea to henge some clones into the bandits who had attacked him. In fact he even had them drag him to the camp.

Infiltrating the place had been a piece of cake. His plan revolved around silently taking out all the bandits one by one and having his clone replace them. Once destroying the camp he would have joined the girls and made up a story of his escape.

Simple and efficient. But the arrival of Rei and Akira had complicated matters slightly. But it also helped him in ways which would save him a lot of trouble later. Now he could have them see, what he wanted them to see.

Hence came the idea of the riot. Using his Henge'd clones he instigated a riot of sorts soon setting the entire camp ablaze.

Well. So far so good.

* * *

Rei studied her partner. They were slowly approaching the bandit camp She had been worried that the woman was lying to her when she said she would help her rescue Tenzo.

But her faith had been rewarded, when didn't take long for Akira to find the trail of the bandits. and her eyes first fell on the camp, when they were several hundred yards away.

"Listen kid, I will rescue Tenzo, but only on one condition." Akira said setting a glare on the girl.

Rei nodded in assent.

"If I am not back with Tenzo in an hour, follow this path." She said indicating a line of grass a few yards from them. You will reach a stream. Follow it and you will be out of the woods in a couple of days. This is the longer way, but if I am gone this will be your best way to civilization.

"But..." Rei began.

"Promise me or I swear to God I will knock you out and drag you away myself." Akira snarled at the child.

Rei gave another nod.

Satisfied Akira crouched low and began approaching the camp silently.

A ring of cries started echoing through the jungle the closer she got. At first she thought that the bandits were celebrating in their drunken haze, then she realized that the cries were of panic and terror as the tents caught fire and soon the entire camp was ablaze.

Knowing she wouldn't get a better chance she rushed inside the camp, dispatching a bandit on the way, who had foolishly challenged her by charging with his ax held high above his head by driving a palm through his nose.

She moved around the camp stealthily, though not much of it was needed, considering the panic which was running through it.

But she was confused as to who was the cause of it. Tenzo?

Naa. One man can't cause this much chaos. It seemed that the bandits were fighting among themselves.

Well well, this didn't look like a suicide mission after all.

"There you are!" A roar stopped her dead in her tracks. She turned around slowly to see a mountain of a man glaring down at her, rage contorting his face. A huge nodaichi in a death grip in his right hand.

She just had to jinx it. The suicide mission which wasn't a suicide mission had just turned into a suicide mission.

* * *

Sasuke and Kaito made their way into the Land of Fire. The customs hadn't taken long for entering legally. A subtle genjutsu from Sasuke convinced the official that they were natives returning home from a tour of the Land of Wind.

Kaito had to admit, as much as he loathed the ninja, he had his uses.

"How much longer?" He asked the stoic shinobi.

"A day's walk from here." Came the reply.

"Did you miss your home?" Kaito asked him, a hint of mocking in his tone.

Sasuke ignored the mocking tone, but answered nevertheless.

"No not at all."


	10. Deathmatch

**A/N: Been a long time since I have updated this one. But then again, the response for this story has been lukewarm at best, so I decided to take a break from this one. But I am back and hope you enjoy this chapter.**

**Deathmatch**

Akira bit her lip as she contemplated going against the man-mountain leering in front of her.

His black hair was matted in an irregular top-knot, his hair fanning out behind him in the evening breeze, his eyes black as midnight, wild like a forest fire and a huge Kodaichi in his hands.

Against the background of the burning campsite he really looked like a demon escaped from hell.

He swung the blade one-handed pointing it towards her.

"You're gonna pay for what you did bitch!" He snarled.

A seriously pissed off giant of a man, waving around a blade big enough to dwarf full-grown men.

Time to re-evaluate her situation, think things through and no matter what try and not make him more angry.

"That's a big sword you have. You sure you're not compensating for something?"

Okay she had to get that off of her chest. Now she can focus on the fight that much better.

As for trying to not make her adversary more angry. Well to say that ship didn't sail so much away as it sank. Making an adversary angry during a battle can be a double-edged sword. On the one hand it did make them more reckless and prone to leave openings which can be exploited, the same recklessness also made them more dangerous, as they cared little about what they did, as long as they get to kill their opponent.

That single-minded determination would often win out against any quick-fire strategy which one could come up with on the fly.

"Raaaaaaaaaarrrrrrggggghhhhhh!" The man charged, bringing his sword down vertically to cleave her in half.

Jumping to the side she dodged the first blow and the follow up slash to the head, by ducking, a few strands of hair fell on the ground suggesting just how close she came to losing her head.

Channelling chakra to her feet she put on a burst of speed to put some distance between them.

When she came to a stop and turned around to face him again, she was surprised to see that he hadn't pursued her.

That was strange.

"Good ploy that, trying to make your opponent angry." The man hadn't moved from his place, a smirk on his face.

That's when she knew, that she was in way more trouble than she expected. The man was dangerous and knew what he was doing. He had even managed to fool her into thinking she got under his skin.

"Yeah…. Looks like you're smarter than you look." Akira said forcing a level of calmness in her voice which she was far from feeling. "But then if you weren't you wouldn't be able to walk and talk at the same time."

"You're funny little girl." He scoffed. "That was a killer line. 'Killer' isn't just an expression here."

Akira reached into her belt and unleashed her whips, cracking them once and taking her stance.

From their brief skirmish earlier, she knew that he was deceptively fast for his size. Not as fast as her, but difference in their speeds wasn't enough to make any significant improvements in her odds for this fight, considering he absolutely overwhelmed her in strength.

But her whips had better reach than his sword and she had a few other aces up her sleeve, but she was quite sure he did too.

He charged again, but had to abandon it midway, when Akira's whip came down with a crack forcing him to move sideways, but even as he was moving Akira used her second whip to intercept him, having anticipated his move.

Bringing his blade to intercept the whip he allowed it to wrap around it, confident in his strength to hold onto it if she tried to disarm it.

What he hadn't been counting on was, that she instead of trying to disarm him, used her whip to catapult herself towards him.

His eyes widened, he wasn't fast enough to dodge this one.

They met, Akira landed on the other side, sliding on the forest floor to kill her momentum.

Damn it. She was so sure she had him.

She managed to catch him by surprise with her last manoeuvre, she had aimed to break his neck with a sharp kick, but he had been deft enough, to jump just in time to render the kick ineffective by taking it on his upper arm, turning what could have been a fatal blow, into a harmless bee-sting.

To make matters worse, she had lost a few inches of the whip which had been wrapped around his blade.

"Nice moves." The man said with a hint of admiration in his voice. "Pity, they didn't work. But now it's my turn. **Earth Style: Destructive Rising Rock Pillars.**" Going through a series of hand-seals he slammed his blade on the ground, causing it to erupt upward.

Naruto was watching the battle from some distance away, from the cover of trees. The branch he was standing gave him a bird's eye view of the battlefield. His strategy had worked well.

His clones had done their job well, clearing out the entire group of bandits. All that needed to be done was kill the head honcho.

He would have done it too, but the appearance of Akira had driven a wrench in those plans. But he supposed he should feel grateful that she came to rescue him, even though he didn't need it. Rei had something to do with it he supposed. He could sense her presence barely twenty yards away from the main battlefield.

So far the battle hadn't been going all that well for Akira. She did manage to surprise the bandit with her last move, but he wasn't like his lackeys. This guy was actually skilled.

And his latest move proved that he was something of a strategist as well.

His latest move with that Earth jutsu, just killed whatever little advantage Akira had over him with her speed and agility.

The rock pillars the battle ground was littered with reduced the effectiveness of Akira's whips, which relied on their ability to cover more area of damage. With those pillars he had literally left her helpless.

He could intervene and save her. But that would raise questions he won't be able to answer.

Could he sacrifice her for the greater good?

Could he watch her die, knowing he could do something about it and chose not to?

But maybe he was getting ahead of himself. For all he knew she probably didn't even need his help.

He would let this play out…. For now.

Akira cursed audibly as she saw the very shape of the battlefield change. If the battle had been hard before, it just went beyond impossible with this.

Her whips were now all but useless and a short blade wasn't going to help her much against the monstrosity of a sword he had been swing around as if it were a toothpick.

But before she could gather her thoughts, he made his move.

Jumping high in the air, he raised his blade and brought it down hard on Akira.

"**Titan Strike**."

She tried to move away, but now the battlefield was cramped due to the Earth spikes.

Even though she managed to avoid a direct hit, the shockwave from his attack was enough to send her crashing.

Fighting to stay conscious, she tried to backflip away trying to gain some distance, but he was having none of it this time as he gave pursuit.

Akira still disoriented from the shockwave, barely put a fight when he grabbed her by the throat and slammed her to the ground like a rag doll, knocking the air out of her lungs.

Pinning her to the ground with his left hand and holding out his blade with his right, he prepared to gut her.

"Time to die." He hissed, before screaming in pain as he jerked away from Akira, a knife sticking out of his left hand.

With a desperation borne out of the need for survival Akira managed to reach for her knife and managed to stab his arm. Blessed oxygen entered her lungs as the pressure was relieved.

Choking and coughing she got to her feet, holding her ribs.

From the corner of her eye she saw the bandit leader bleeding profusely from his arm. She must have cut an artery by pure luck.

Which was good because she would need all the luck in the world if she were to survive this.

Unfortunately his sword arm was still functional.

"You're so dead." He said in a quiet and deadly tone, but his eyes were screaming murder.

Akira silently grabbed her whips and took guard again.

She couldn't allow him to get close again. One good thing to come out of this was that she had made sure he couldn't use Titan Strike again, which needed two hands to be executed.

But he still had the upper hand. And both of them knew it.

Taking a deep breath she calmed her speeding heart.

_"Sometimes you will come across opponents who will be stronger than you Akira." The voice of her sensei whispered in her ear. "But that doesn't mean they can't be defeated."_

_"How do you defeat someone who is stronger than you sensei?" She had asked in all her childish innocence._

_Her sensei smiled gently at her and ruffled her hair ignoring her whine of protest._

_"You turn their strength into your own." He said smiling at her._

She didn't understand what he was trying to say back then. She had simply thought of it as him being his usual cryptic self. But right now standing here in a fight to death, his words made sense in a way that hadn't before.

Hiroshi couldn't believe how much trouble he was having with one little girl. But then again she had somehow managed to destroy his entire camp while being a captive.

He didn't know how she did it, but felt certain she was responsible.

And now he was going to extract his pound of flesh from her.

He was surprised by her continuing defiance. She held her self with pride, determined to fight to the last. Despite his anger, he couldn't help but admire her courage. Well, enough was enough. It was time to end this.

But before he could make his move, she surprised him by attacking first. The whip flew towards him like a striking cobra.

This time he didn't try to block it but moved his head to the side. That trick wasn't going to work on him twice.

Before he could even complete the thought, he was lying face-down on the ground, the back of his head stinging.

He avoided the follow-up kick by rolling away. A minor crater forming where his head was a fraction of a second ago courtesy of the said kick.

He backhanded the girl, who brought her arms together, trying to block it. The blow lifted her off her feet, depositing her some distance away. But she recovered quickly and struck again. He dodged, but again his body was wracked with stinging pain, this time it was the ribs.

Just what the hell was going on? He was sure he had dodged it, but somehow she kept managing to strike him.

Akira kept up the attack without letting up. She couldn't afford to let him recover. She knew if he discovered the trick to her moves it would be all over for her. Even now when her strikes were a little more than minor annoyance to him.

She may have to hit him another hundred times to bring him down, but all he needed to do was get one clean hit and it would be all over for her.

She could use her ace, but she hadn't mastered it yet. It was more miss than hit anyway.

Plus she didn't know if she had the chakra to pull it off.

So for now she stuck to what was working. She dodged another swing of his blade…. _Barely. _She swallowed a gasp of pain as her ribs protested the exertion.

It gave her the opening to strike and she used her whip to trip him, putting him down hard and yet again he managed to avoid her finishing blow.

Akira was getting frustrated now. No matter how hard she tried she just couldn't put him down.

She struck again, but this time he pinned his blade to the end of her whip, stopping her attack in its tracks.

Akira froze. He figured it out.

"Clever." He gave a bloody grin. The river of blood flowing from his face and torso presented a terrifying visage. "You used my own attack against me. No wonder kept getting struck even when I was dodging."

Akira sighed audibly. She had used the earth pillars to reflect her attacks back on him. She kept getting him to dodge, which led him to getting struck when he was least expecting it. But now he had it figured and her brain was going blank.

"You put up a really good fight." He admitted. "But it's the end of the line now."

Grabbing her whip he gave an almighty heave intent on pulling her towards him.

Akira having the presence of mind let go of her whip, which saved her from getting cleaved but also now left her without one of her weapons.

With only one whip now, Akira prepared for her final stand. He charged, Akira dodged and weaved around him ignoring her protesting ribs as she tried to look for openings.

But it was no use. She was tiring and he still seemed to be fighting like a juggernaut.

It wasn't long before she received a blow to the face, blood and spittle flying she barely held on to shreds of consciousness.

She landed heavily on the ground, before receiving another kick to the ribs. She couldn't keep down her scream of agony this time.

Hiroshi smirked with satisfaction as he saw the lying figure of his adversary. She was groaning in pain as she rolled around, trying to get away from him.

Interestingly, she still held on to her whip.

Walking up to her he pinned her beneath his foot. Time to put her out of her misery. He raised his blade to deal the final blow, when seemingly out of nowhere a rock came and nailed him right on his temple.

Snarling in rage he turned around to face the new aggravator, only to see a young preteen girl.

Not caring about his defeated opponent he turned his blade on the new target and charged.

The girl froze seeing the man charge. But just before he could cleave the man in half, he suddenly stopped dead in his tracks.

Killing intent the likes of which he had never felt before struck him. He couldn't breathe. He didn't know where it was coming from, all he knew was that if he took just another step, he would die right there. Images of his own severed head assaulted his mind, as his mind tried to find the source of the killer intent.

But before he could, he felt a sudden pressure on this throat followed by the last words he would hear in the living world.

"**Lightning Style: Thunder whip.**"

Akira collapsed along with her enemy. If that didn't kill him, she was giving up. For some reason he had turned his back to her and was in pursuit of a new enemy.

She didn't know what caused him to do that, but then he froze in his tracks. Not questioning her good fortune she took the opening she had been offered and using the last ounce of her strength

she channelled chakra into to her whip, praying to the Gods to make it work and attacked him, wrapping the whip around his neck.

Lightning chakra ran through her whip and electrocuted him. She gave a vicious tug breaking his neck.

He collapsed on his knees, before dropping face-down on the ground.

Seeing her opponent defeated Akira allowed her consciousness to fade.

Smell of smoke assaulted her nostrils. Her entire body was wracked with pain. She was probably in hell, and the devil was cooking her over a slow fire, that would explain the smoke.

She slowly opened her eyes and blinked a few times to get rid of the blurriness. She was close to what looked like a bon-fire. She tried to move but found herself immobile. That's when it all came rushing back. Tenzo, her fight and her subsequent loss of consciousness. For a second she panicked, thoughts of having been captured and what came next assaulted her brain. But then she realized she wasn't restrained.

Atleast not in a way a prisoner is restrained anyway.

She was wrapped in blankets and bandages to make sure she didn't damage herself anymore than she had.

As her faculties returned she began to make out strains of conversation floating towards her.

Turning her head towards the source of the sounds, she saw two girls she didn't know talking in hushed tones.

"You're up."

She turned to see the smiling face of Rei hovering over her, she opened her mouth to return her greeting, but her throat was totally parched.

"Wa….ter" She gasped

Rei hurriedly brought a makeshift bowl of leaves stitched together and brought it to her lips. Akira lapped it up rather greedily.

It took another two bowls before she was satisfied.

"Ho..w long?" She asked.

"You had been unconscious for 36 hours." Rei explained. "Tenzo said you needed energy to recover, but we didn't know hot to feed you, so he did this."

What Tenzo did, turned out to be a make-shift IV line made from some wire attached to a fruit of sorts hanging above her, sending fluid directly into her bloodstream.

She was impressed. He certainly knew his stuff, Tenzo. Somewhere in the back of her mind she wondered how he knew, how to do this.

"He has gone to collect some more firewood." Rei informed her helpfully. She wanted to ask about the girls, but her exhaustion took over and she fell asleep again.

* * *

Konohamaru Sarutobi thirteen year old Chunnin of Konoha had just returned from his second B-rank mission. He was looking forward to a nice long break after his exertions of the last few weeks. On his way, he passed the statue of Naruto.

He came here whenever he could to regale it with the going-ons of the village and his own missions. Like a lot of people, Naruto's influence on Konohamaru had been profound. He had been a big brother figure for him and a mentor of sorts. But more than that, he had been his rival for the post of Hokage.

He was the first man to take him seriously and take his dream seriously. Now that he was gone, it had left a void in his life which couldn't be filled.

He missed him... A lot.

Sighing he walked towards the sweet shop not far from the statue.

The owner gave him a smile, recognizing him.

"So, will it be the usual Sarutobi-san?" The man asked politely.

"Yes, Yukito-san I will have the usual."

As he waited for the order, his eyes fell on two hooded figures. His eyes narrowed. Something wasn't right here. They din't look like they belonged to Konoha and they certainly didn't look like civilians.

The men rose soon afterwards, as they realized they had been spotted.

Ignoring his order Konohamaru followed them.

He waited till they reached a relatively isolated place.

"Halt in the name of Hokage." Konohamaru challenged them. "State your identity and purpose."

The men stopped and one of them chuckled.

"Well well Uchiha-san." The man said obviously addressing his companion, taking his hood off. "Even though it was our intention to be detected, its kinda embarrassing being discovered by a brat."

"So it would seem." The other man removed his hood revealing his face.

Konohamaru gasped in surprise as he came face to face with the last Uchiha.

"Well, better get this over with." Sasuke said coolly as he casually reached for his blade.

**AAAAAnnnnnnnnnnddddd. Done. Well a lot happening in this chapter. A fight scene. Not a lot of Naruto, but you will see him in the following chapters. Do leave a review.**

**Until next time**

**Peace out**


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